Twenty excellent personalities arrested in Jordan for a suspected "conspiracy" against King Abdallah II.
Among these there would be - as claimed by the Washington Post - also the half-brother of the monarch Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, but Amman has officially denied it while confirming his involvement.
The arrests were motivated by "security reasons".
"Since this morning I have been under house arrest," Hamzah said in a video sent to the BBC, stressing that "he is not responsible for the collapse of governance, corruption and incompetence that has prevailed in the government over the past 15-20 years and which is getting worse now. "
"We are at the point where - he said - no one is able to speak or express opinions on anything without being bullied, arrested, harassed and threatened".
In the video recorded, Prince Hamzah says: "I had a visit from the Chief of Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces who informed me that I was not allowed to go out, communicate or meet people because during meetings I had attended - either on social media or during visits made by me - criticisms of the government or the king had been expressed. "
King Abdallah's half-brother points out that he has not been accused of criticizing himself, however he says: "I am not responsible for the collapse of governance, corruption and incompetence that has been prevalent in our governance structure over the past 15-20. years and now it is getting worse. And I'm not responsible for the lack of trust people have in institutions either. It has reached a point where no one is able to speak or express opinions about anything without being bullied, arrested, harassed and threatened ".
Hamzah's statements come after the arrest of twenty high dignitaries of the kingdom of Jordan for a suspected "plot" against King Abdallah II.
Amman officially denied that Prince Hamzah was among those arrested, while confirming his involvement.
The Jordanian chief of staff, General Yousef al Huneiti, said that Hamzah was ordered to refrain from travel and other activities that could be exploited to destabilize the Hashemite kingdom.
