Local

AMMAN — The Public Security Department (PSD) on Wednesday warned against fake campaigns and advertisements on social networking sites that solicit donations to help Syrian refugees in the Kingdom.

The PSD urged those wishing to provide in-kind or cash assistance for Syrian refugees to send their donations through official entities or licensed local and international NGOs to avoid falling victim to fraud.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, the department said two Arabs filed complaints that they were defrauded and deceived by a campaign on a social networking site purporting to collect donations to help needy Syrians in Jordan.

The two Arabs said they transferred $2,000 each.

The PSD said investigation revealed that the creator of the page claimed it belongs to a well-known Arab figure concerned with helping the Syrian refugees and asked people to make money transfers.

The police succeeded in identifying the suspect who created the page, and he confessed to collaborating with two others.

The three suspects, who admitted receiving $4,000 in donations, were arrested and referred to court, the PSD said.

A social media expert explained that there are a “few ways” for users to check whether a page is genuine or not.

“Generally, social media users should not trust any page created online or any ad asking for donations or money, because the majority of them are fake,” the expert, who asked not to be named, told The Jordan Times.

“Legitimate pages are usually classified by Facebook for example as verified pages. So a person who sees a page on Facebook can check near the name if there is a sign saying the page is verified.”

“If that is the case, then the page is authentic and there is no fraud, as Facebook keeps a close eye on all pages,” he noted.

“People should only donate to NGOs or societies that are registered with the Ministry of Social Development and they should deal with well-known entities,” the expert added.

“Even after taking all that into account, it is hard to be 100 per cent sure whether a page is fake or not, so people need to be careful when donating online.”

AMMAN — Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of eight wanted criminals in two security operations in the capital and Aqaba.

Three suspects were arrested in an Amman neighbourhood, while the remaining five were apprehended during a raid in the port city, Public Security Department (PSD) Spokesperson Major Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

He described the seven suspects, who have previous criminal records, as extremely dangerous.

In the first incident, Sartawi said the Criminal Investigation Department received information about a wanted person who was hiding in a house in an Amman suburb.

“A special force monitored the area and raided the house at dawn on Wednesday.”

The suspects fired at the security personnel but “the special forces managed to contain the situation and arrest the suspects without any major incident,” the police official added.

The suspects were specialised in stealing vehicles and then asking the owner to pay a ransom to get it back, according to a PSD statement.

One of the suspects had 165 criminal records, including attempted murder, aggravated assault and car theft.

Police seized the weapons used by the suspects and a search of the house also yielded a stash of illegal narcotics, Sartawi said.

He added that the second operation involved the arrest of five suspects, who took refuge at a house in Aqaba, 330km south of Amman.

“No one was injured in this operation,” Sartawi said.

One of the suspects had 183 criminal records for theft, forgery and aggravated assault.

The Criminal Court prosecutor issued orders for all the suspects to be detained at correctional facilities pending further investigation.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Wednesday referred the draft amended Jordan Press Association Law to its Legal Committee to provide its recommendations before endorsing the bill.

The decision was made during Wednesday’s Lower House session after MPs engaged in an extensive discussion over the right committee to look into the bill.

Several deputies suggested that it should be sent to the Media and National Guidance Committee rather than the legal panel, but the majority of the 149-strong House voted to refer the bill to the Legal Committee.

Also, on Wednesday, the MPs granted Prime Minster Abdullah Ensour the right to delegate his authorities to other Cabinet members.

The decision falls under draft amendments to the Public Administration Law, which the House endorsed in the same session.

In their discussions of the draft amendments to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Law, MPs rejected a recommendation to allow the commission to open branches in the governorates.

They said there is no need for such amove as most of the alleged corruption cases can be investigated through the ACC’s Amman office.

Acting Lower House speaker Ahmad Safadi adjourned the session after the MPs discussed two articles in the amended ACC Law.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Wednesday did not agree with a Senate decision to scrap an article in the draft amendments to the State Security Court (SSC) Law that excludes “resistance actions” against Israel from the court’s jurisdiction.

By insisting on their previous decision to add the said article, deputies chose not to follow the recommendations of the House’s Legal Committee, which called for approving the senators’ version of the bill.

The decision was taken during Wednesday’s session following an extensive debate over the issue.

MPs had decided to exclude “resistance actions” from the SSC’s jurisdiction following a proposal by Deputy Tareq Khoury (Zarqa, 1st District), but senators argued that the SSC Law is not the right legislation to include such a provision.

They called on the government to submit a draft anti-terrorism law to specify the crimes that fall under the category of terrorism.

“I am against the Senate’s decision and support the MPs’ point of view,” former House speaker Abdul Karim Dughmi (Mafraq, 1st District) said during Wednesday session.

“The Arab nation has regressed since the decision was taken to limit the conflict only between Israel and the Palestinians,” Dughmi added.

MP Rula Hroub (Stronger Jordan list) and several other deputies backed his view, with the majority of those present voting to retain the Lower House version of the law.

The draft law will now be forwarded to the Senate and if the senators insist on their version of the bill, the two Houses of Parliament will meet in a joint session to reach an agreement.

The amended SSC Law limits the jurisdiction of the court to five crimes specified in the Constitution: treason, espionage, terrorism, drugs and money counterfeiting.

His Majesty King Abdullah had directed the government to change the law governing the SSC to ensure that trials are in conformity with the Constitution.

Under Article 101 of the Constitution: “No civilian may be tried in a criminal case where all its judges are not civilian, the exception to that are the crimes of treason, espionage, terrorism, the crimes of drugs and currency forgery.”

The government’s changes to the SSC Law ensure that civilians indicted on state security charges, other than those listed in the said constitutional article, are tried before a court whose judges are all civilians and one that is affiliated with the Judicial Council rather than the SSC.

AMMAN –– The Cities and Villages Development Bank (CVDB) will pay the Social Security Corporation (SSC) JD16.5 million owed by municipalities in unpaid subscription fees for their employees.

The announcement was made Wednesday as SSC Director General Nadia Rawabdeh and CVDB Director General Haitham Nahleh signed an agreement to address the debts of financially troubled municipalities.

Rawabdeh said the bailout by the state-owned bank will enable municipalities improve their services to local communities, indicating that the agreement will bring down the overall value of unpaid subscription fees to JD99 million, with the largest share owed by private companies.

Nahleh said unpaid subscription fees are a financial burden on cash strapped municipalities, adding that the bank is working to enable municipalities exit their “bad financial conditions”.

Under the agreement, the CVDB will pay the outstanding fees of each municipality that owes the SSC more than JD20,000 in monthly instalments, while dues less than this amount will be given in one payment.

According to Nahleh, some municipalities owe millions of dinars to the SSC in unpaid subscription fees for their employees.

The SSC considers fees not paid for more than three months as debts and delayed payments are subject to interest, according to an official at the corporation.

Most municipalities across the Kingdom face difficult financial conditions, with official figures estimating that nearly 85 per cent of their budgets go to salaries.

Also on Wednesday, the Cabinet decided to disburse JD6 million to municipalities to support their development role, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The assistance, to be distributed according to municipalities' needs in cooperation with the planning and municipal affairs ministries, is provided by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development under the Gulf Cooperation Council's $5 billion grant.

AMMAN — Landowners on Tuesday offered to donate portions of their private land, located on an archaeological site dating back 5,000 years, to help preserve it from a sprawling Amman.

Threatened by a lack of funds and the expansion of the airport highway, excavation on the Tal Al Umayri site was brought to a halt in 2012, and is due to resume later this year.

“Archaeological heritage must not become a casualty of ill-planned progress,” HRH Princess Sumaya, vice chair of the Jordan Museum’s Board of Trustees, said at a meeting to discuss safeguarding the archaeological site.

“Political and economic progress must determine that the protection of our cultural heritage is neither forgotten nor ignored… As the city of Amman spreads its territory towards the site and the highway carries its traffic in Tal Al Umayri’s proximity, we must consider the transient of what we consider progress,” the princess said.

“We share our territory with the physical remnants of human ingenuity, of creativity and of a dogged determination to survive. But these abundant material remains of lost and faded communities are also impressive reminders to us that we occupy our part of the earth, not as outright owners, but as custodians,” she stressed.

Archaeologists and authorities are calling for transforming the area, which is sandwiched between Amman and Ghamdan national parks, into an all-encompassing archaeological park. “Our ultimate goal should be the creation and protection of an archaeological park of international significance,” the princess noted.

“Such a facility would provide an opportunity for educational purposes for Jordanians and visitors who often know little about this vast cultural heritage.”

With the earliest major settlement dating back to around 2500BC, Tal Al Umayri displays the development of human settlements over millennia on a surface of around seven hectares (70 dunums) with massive defences, including a dry moat and a rampart from the Early Bronze Age, as well as a preserved two-room stone building dating back to1500BC.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Nidal Katamine said Tal Al Umayri is part of the history of Jordan and has to be turned into a national park; however, much still needs to be done beyond land acquisition to transform the site into a local landmark.“Tal Al Umayri’s location makes it just a potential perfect park for showing the narrative of Jordan, which is my duty to protect,” Katamine said.

Stressing the importance of reaching an agreement between all parties involved to find a solution to sustain the archaeological site, Princess Sumaya said all participants in the project must be unified.

“When it comes to important archaeological sites such as the one we are discussing today, I believe that we can develop between us a range of solutions to ensure that all concerned parties are unified and satisfied that the correct procedures are being developed to protect all our interests.”

Having worked on the site for the past 30 years, Doug Clark, professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University California, said he set two primary goals to achieve at Tal Al Umayri.

“My first goal would be to preserve, protect and present Jordan’s considerable cultural heritage; the second to protect the considerable investment of landowners in this property. I am looking for a win-win situation for all the project’s stakeholders,” he said.

With proposals ranging from a government purchase of the privately owned land to a stalling land swap, landowners offered to donate a portion of their land to the project despite its high property value, estimated at around JD100,000 per dunum.

“I want this meeting to end with something tangible; therefore, I will donate part of my property to the project for the establishment of an archaeological park comprising Tal Al Umayri,” Raouf Abujaber said, adding that Jebril Abu Aishah will also agree on donating some of his land.

An overall surface of 10 hectares (100 dunums) would be required for the archaeological park project and its facilities.

“Tal Al Umayri is a non-renewable resource that we must guard well and an asset that can spread economic and social value but only if properly managed... we must battle to save it from damage and destruction as Amman spreads inexorably southwards,” Princess Sumaya said.

AMMAN — The government on Wednesday said it was still studying the impact of doubling the tax on mobile subscriptions, while a source in the telecom industry said the authorities are expected to reduce the tax.

The government has not taken any decision yet on whether to lower the tax on mobile subscriptions, which was increased from 12 to 24 per cent last year, ICT Minister Azzam Sleit told The Jordan Times.

“We are still studying the impact of increasing the tax on prepaid and post-paid mobile subscriptions… the study is still being discussed by the Economic Development Committee at the Cabinet,” the minister said.

Late last year, Sleit said a specialised government committee was studying the impact of increasing mobile taxes on customers and the sector.

The committee was formed to look into the impact of the decision on the public as well as the revenues of telecom operators, and to come up with solutions to reach a balance that is acceptable to all.

The government is only studying the impact of increasing taxes on mobile subscriptions and is not looking into the impact of raising taxes on mobile phones from 8 per cent to 16 per cent, Sleit added.

A source in the telecom industry, who preferred anonymity, said they held “fruitful discussions” with the government, which was expected to slightly reduce the tax on mobile subscriptions.

Several telecom experts, as well as the country’s three operators — Zain Jordan, Orange Jordan and Umniah — have repeatedly called on the government to rescind the decision, saying it negatively affected their revenues.

The telecom sector’s revenues have dropped by 9 per cent since the government increased taxes on cellular phones and mobile subscriptions last July, according to Umniah CEO Ihab Hinnawi.

In remarks on Sunday, Hinnawi said a study conducted by the three mobile operators showed that profits also declined by between 30 per cent and 40 per cent.

In Jordan, mobile penetration reached 155 per cent by the end of September last year, with 10.227 million subscriptions, according to official figures.