Peter Beaumont - Jordanian writer shot dead as he arrived for trial for insulting Islam
A prominent Jordanian
writer, who was on trial for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam, has been shot dead
outside a court in Amman where he was due to appear. Nahed Hattar, 56, was
charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam after posting the
cartoon on Facebook this year.
The cartoon, entitled
The God of Daesh (Isis), depicted an Isis militant sitting next to two women
and asking God to bring him a drink. Hattar was arrested in
Augustand released on bail early this month. On Sunday, he was shot in the head
three times as he arrived for a hearing.
According to the
Jordanian state news agency Petra, a man was arrested at the scene of the
shooting in the Abdali district. The government denounced the killing as a
“heinous” crime. Two witnesses said the
gunman, bearded and in his 50s, was wearing a traditional Arab dishdasha,
or long robe. “He was standing at a
short distance of about one metre in front of Nahed on the stairs of the
supreme court,” a witness told the Associated Press.
Saad Hattar, a cousin
of the victim, said: “Nahed was accompanied with two brothers and a friend when
he was shot. The brothers and the friend chased the killer and caught him and
handed him over to the police.” He said the family
held Jordan’s prime minister, Hani al-Mulki, responsible for Hattar’s death.
“The prime minister was the first one who incited against Nahed when he ordered
his arrest and put him on trial for sharing the cartoon, and that ignited the
public against him and led to his killing,” Saad Hattar said.
In a statement, the
family called on the government to hold accountable all those who had incited
violence against Hattar. “Many fanatics wrote on social media calling for his
killing and lynching, and the government did nothing against them,” they said.
A government
spokesman, Mohammad Momani, who condemned the killing as a heinous crime, said:
“The government will strike with an iron hand all those who exploit this crime
to broadcast speeches of hatred to our community.” Hattar had insisted
that he had not meant to insult Islam by posting the cartoon, but wanted to
“expose” how Isis “envisions God and heaven”. He accused his Islamist opponents
of using the cartoon to settle scores with him.
A controversial figure
on the left of Jordanian politics, Hattar has faced charges before, including
for insulting the country’s king, Abdullah II. He has also been a prominent
supporter of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and advocated depriving
Jordanians of Palestinian origin of their legal and civil rights.
Hattar’s murder is the
latest in a series of recent violent incidents in Jordan, which until
recently had avoided the worst of the jihadi-related violence that has affected
some other Middle Eastern states despite the fact that several thousand of its
citizens have crossed into neighbouring Syria to join Isis.
Late last year, a Jordanian
police captain opened fire on instructors at an international police training
centre in Jordan’s capital, killing at least five people, including
two Americans, before being shot dead by security forces.
In June, a suicide
car bomb attack near the Syrian border killed seven Jordanian
soldiers.
The incidents have
raised fears among diplomats and analysts over Jordan’s security after years in
which the kingdom has been seen as a haven of stability.
