Key leaders of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Sunday at the Bakaa refugee camp north of Amman following a march organized by the group in support of Palestinians in the West Bank.
"They were arrested just after [the Muslim Brotherhood] held a march to support our brethren in occupied Palestine," Hamza Mansour, a key figure in the Islamic group, said in an interview with Al Jazeera satellite TV.
He added that the Jordanian government gave no explanation for the arrests, butaddded that the government "wants to implement its new public gatherings law, in order to block freedom of expression at these particular times."
"We, as well as everyone else, believe that this law in unconstitutional and uncalled for," Mansour said.
He also said that the government had clearly stated that it would not let the group have their march, nor any other activity "outside closed buildings."
"The government had said that no activities would be allowed without the permission of local governors, but we know that the governors will not let us hold any activity.
"We are not doing this to defy the government, but to face up to the Israeli occupation of our lands."
Mansour also touched on the controversy of having such a law in a country like Jordan, which he said was so in touch with the Palestinian cause.
"How can millions of citizens in Iraq and other Arab countries hold a huge march to support our Palestinian brethren, while in Jordan, which has the closest ties with the Palestinian cause, such marches are banned by law," Mansour told Al Jazeera.
The leaders were arrested at dawn on Sunday after their homes were searched by security forces, following an anti-Israeli demonstration organized in the camp on Friday marking the first anniversary of the intifada, or uprising against Israeli occupation, according to AFP.
"At least six people from the Bakaa camp were arrested at dawn by the security forces during searches of their homes," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu Bakr was quoted by AFP as saying.
The demonstration included chanting of slogans hostile to the anti-terrorist coalition that the United States is seeking to muster in the wake of the anti-US terror attacks of September 11, according to witnesses cited by AFP.
Among those arrested was the leader of a camp association, Mohammad Aqel, and fellow brotherhood member Kazem Ayesh, said Abu Bakr, adding that the rest belonged to other Palestinian groups including Yasser Arafat's Fateh.
Since October, the Jordanian government has banned any demonstration in the country, but it does permit rallies in Palestinian refugee camps.
Jordan is home to more than 1.6 million Palestinian refugees, most of whom hold Jordanian nationality.
During a meeting Friday with US President George W. Bush in Washington, Jordan's King Abdullah gave his full support to the US fight against terrorism - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
