AMMAN, Jordan, Aug. 29 -- A Jordanian chief editor of a weekly newspaper has been released on bail after the prosecutor reversed his earlier decision to detain him for two weeks for allegedly slandering the prime minister's son. Al-Bilad weekly said in a statement today that its chief editor, Abdul Karim Barghouti, was released on Saturday after the prosecutor accepted a 'personal bail petition' submitted by parliament member Lutfi Barghouti. The editor was arrested and detained on Tuesday after Prime Minister Abdul Raouf Rawabdeh's eldest son, Issam, filed a libel suit against the paper for running an article he deemed slanderous. The arrest of the 65-year-old Barghouti was strongly criticized by Arab and international press rights groups, who had petitioned King Abdullah II to secure his release, saying the editor suffered from a weak heart condition and diabetes. The rights groups and journalists had blasted the authorities for detaining Barghouti, saying that even if found guilty of slander, journalists are only obliged to pay a fine and that the penalty excludes any prison time. Sources at al-Bilad said today that bail was accepted only after the parliament member brought with him a report from a hospital outlining Barghouti's ailing health conditions. They said that the prime minister's son has so far refused to drop the charges of slander. The young Rawabdeh filed a legal complaint against Barghouti last week after the paper ran an article saying that he had harassed nurses from an Islamic hospital and threatened a bus driver with a gun.
The weekly ran a letter from the Islamic hospital's director, Ali Hawamdeh, to Prime Minister Rawabdeh complaining about his son's behavior and urging him to punish Issam. Barghouti, the third editor from independent newspapers to be detained in two months, was detained despite reported instructions by Abdullah to the authorities to stop arresting journalists. Abdullah gave the order when he released al-Massayia daily editor Sinan Shaqdih earlier this month. ---
Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
