Jordan PM: Prince Coordinated Botched Coup With Ex-Official

Date: 13 April 2021 - 22:19

News ID: ۸۹۱۲۵

AMMAN (Dispatches) – Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh has revealed that Prince Hamzah bin Hussein had been in contact for more than a year with a former chief of the Royal Court regarding the recent botched coup attempt, Ammon news agency has reported.
Briefing tribal leaders about the detentions related to the attempted coup, Al-Khasawneh said that there had been suspicious movements and visits carried out by the prince.
"The former chief of the Royal Court, Bassem Awadallah, was in contact with Prince Hamzah and there had been coordination between them for more than a year,” he pointed out.
The prime minister also claimed that there had been incitement against King Abdullah II, stressing that this violated the cof the kingdom. However, he added that the Public Prosecutor had started his investigations and that all suspects would be turned over to the prosecutor except the prince, whose case will be dealt with by the royal family.
On 3 April, the Jordanian security services detained Awadallah and at least a dozen senior officials. Prince Hamzah was placed under house arrest.
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi also said last week that Prince Hamza had been liaising with foreign parties over a plot to destabilize the country and had been monitored for some time.
The authorities intercepted communications between Prince Hamza and foreign parties over the timing of steps to undermine Jordan’s security, Safadi said at a news conference.
Evidence showed Prince Hamza had been communicating with outside entities, the so-called Jordanian opposition, and had recorded two videos in Arabic and English in an "incitement attempt,” Safadi added.
He also said the wife of Prince Hamza had also made contact with a representative of a foreign country to secure escape.
Last Wednesday, King Abdullah declared the end of the "sedition” in the Kingdom and announced that Hamzah had pledged allegiance to the monarch and to the constitution.