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Jordan court clears

paper of slander charge

AMMAN: A court on Saturday cleared the London-based al-Hayat newspaper and its chief editor and local correspondent of slander charges over an article alleging that a Jordanian cabinet minister and dozens of traders and journalists were on Iraq's payroll.

The unprecedented case could encourage Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Kabariti, pursuing tougher anti-Iraq policy amid worsening ties, to investigate the sensitive issue of Iraqi influence in Jordan, officials said.

The court found chief editor Jihad al-Khazen, Jordanian correspondent Salameh Ne'matt and the paper's publishing company innocent of slander and defamation.

The charges brought against them by the prosecutor-general carried up to two years' imprisonment and fines. Khazen, a Lebanese, was tried in absentia. Al-Hayat is a private Arabic-language newspaper owned mainly by Saudi investors.

"This is a blow to the Iraqi influence in Jordan," said Ne'matt, 34. "It could open the door wide on prosecuting those suspected of being on the Iraqi government's payroll," he told Reuters outside the court in central Amman.

King Hussein turned against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his main Arab ally before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, when he gave asylum to top Iraqi defectors last August.

This year he named Kabariti as premier, allowed an Iraqi opposition group to open an office in Amman for the first time and gave permission for U.S. warplanes to use Jordan as a base to enforce a Western-imposed no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

The dramatic shift in policy created unease in Jordan where Iraq still enjoys deep-rooted popular support because of strong historic, economic and social links.

Many officials remain ideologically aligned with Iraq. Until 1990 Saddam sent lavish gifts to many Jordanians, including hundreds of luxury cars to prime ministers, ministers and deputies.

Many journalists live in a housing project that was mostly financed by Saddam in the early 1980s.

Ne'matt, who quoted "informed and official sources" in the article which appeared on September 20, named none of the 42 people he said were paid by Iraq or say how much they received.

But he said that after the defections on August 8, "Iraqi parties were trying to recruit Jordanian journalists and to revive all pro-Iraqi regime forces in Jordan by offering gifts to create a trend that runs counter to the official position".

Ne'matt said he was planning to sue Tareq Masarwah, a prosecution witness in the case and a leading local political commentator, for defaming him in at least four articles.-Reuter