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King Abdullah II of Jordan, second left, and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, second right, review Bedouin honor at the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI is on a three-day official visit to strengthen bilateral relations. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh) Photo: Raad Adayleh, Associated Press / SF
Amman, Jordan —
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday ordered the release of 20 jailed pro-democracy activists, as he responded publicly for the first time to activists’ calls for “regime change” in the country.
In a royal decree issued Tuesday, the king ordered the government to release the activists, who have been jailed for more than a month for allegedly chanting anti-regime slogans and slandering the king.
Amman is expected to release the jailed protesters, two of whom have been hospitalized after a weeklong hunger strike, early Wednesday, according to defense attorney Mamoun Harasseen.
The monarch also criticized various protest groups for attempting to incite “sedition and chaos” in the country, publicly responding for the first time to calls for “regime change.”
In a wide-ranging speech on the pace of political reforms in the country, Abdullah acknowledged the existence of a “limited minority” of protest groups calling for the overthrow of the regime – a call he likened to the overthrow of “every individual in the society.”
“If the intention behind these slogans was to undermine the Hashemite umbrella of this country, then let me be absolutely clear: Governing for us Hashemites was never at any point a gain that we sought, but rather a responsibility,” the monarch said. The Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s largest political force, said the speech did little to sway it to abandon a nationwide boycott campaign of the polls, which it claims are being held under an electoral system favoring regime loyalists at the expense of political parties.
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