AMMAN, Jordan, June 12 (UPI) -- Jordan's Islamist movement called on authorities to release four of its legislators rounded up for paying condolences to the family of Abu Musab Zarqawi.
A statement issued Monday by the Muslim Brotherhood Organization whose political arm, the Islamic Action Front, has 17 seats in parliament, said the arrest of the four legislators on Sunday was a violation "of the basic rules of the constitution."
The legislators -- Ali Abu Sukkar, Mohammed Fares, Ibrahim Mashoukhi and Jaafar Horani -- were arrested by security agency late Sunday after returning from Zarqa where they offered condolences to Zarqawi's family, the leader of the al-Qaida network in Iraq whose real name is Fadel Khalayleh.
Zarqawi was killed last week in a U.S. raid on his hideout near Baquba, east of Baghdad.
The Brotherhood statement reaffirmed "respect to the blood of victims in the Amman hotel bombings," but rejected the way its legislators were treated.
Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for last year's triple hotel bombings in Amman in which dozens of people were killed or wounded.
Government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said the public prosecutor ordered the arrest of the legislators on charges of making statements that provoked the feelings of the Jordanians. He said the arrest was also requested by the families of the victims of the hotel bombings.
A judicial source said Monday official charges were filed against the lawmakers, including inciting sectarian divisions and undermining national unity.
Islamic Action Front Consultative Council member Hamza Mansour slammed the arrests as "unacceptable and violation of citizens' rights."
In a related development, the Jordanian authorities arrested Sunday a leading member of the extremist Salafi movement in Jordan, Jarrah Rahahila, for making a sermon during at Zarqawi's condolences gathering describing him as a "martyr."
