Bani Rsheid to be released on Jan. 4 — Islamists

AMMAN — Deputy overall leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Zaki Bani Rsheid is expected to be released from jail within the next two weeks, a top Islamist figure said Wednesday.

Murad Adayleh, spokesperson of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), which is the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood group, told The Jordan Times that Bani Rsheid is expected to be set free on January 4, 2016 as he would be ending the prison term he was handed by the State Security Court in mid-February.

Bani Rsheid was sentenced to one year and a half in prison on charges of harming Jordan’s ties with a friendly state under the 2014 amended Anti-Terrorism Law.

The top Islamist leader was arrested in late November of last year over a critical statement posted on Facebook accusing the United Arab Emirates of promoting “Zionist” foreign policies and indirectly sponsoring “extremism” in the region.

Making statements deemed harmful to Jordan’s ties with foreign states is a criminal offence under articles 3 and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

Adayleh said the Islamist leader has been in jail for 13 months now, adding that in Jordan a year in prison is nine months.

"The lawyer has contacted the court and he was told that Bani Rsheid would be released on January 4," he added.