Alkarama submitted his case as an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on Torture, requesting his intervention with the Jordanian authorities. Alkarama has requested that a full and impartial investigation into the accusations of torture allegedly carried out by Jordanian intelligence services - in an effort to identify the perpetrators and punish them.
Ashraf Mohamed Yousef Abdulsalam, 26, is a Jordanian national residing in Baghdad, Iraq. On 20 June 2010, the Jordanian intelligence services confiscated his passport at a check point on the Iraqi-Jordanian border. He was then told to come for questioning the next day at their headquarters in Amman. After handing himself in, the intelligence services held him for several hours before releasing him the same day.
Ashraf Abdulsalam was once again arrested on 28 June 2010, after making another appearance for questioning at the Intelligence services' headquarters. His family made desperate attempts to obtain any information with regards to his whereabouts; however the Intelligence services denied any involvement.
After several attempts and finally on 22 July 2010, his mother was allowed to visit him at the Intelligence services' headquarters in Amman.
During the 15 minute visit, she saw that her son was in particularly bad state of health, and bore the signs of torture. However, her son could not give her any of the details, due to the presence of a security guard.
He was however able to tell his mother than he had neither been presented before a judge, nor was he allowed to be examined by prison medical staff.
Alkarama is seriously concerned that Ashraf Abdulsalam continues to be held under the same conditions and is most probably still being subjected to torture. The main concern is that he is being tortured in order to extract false confessions that may be used against him as evidence for his conviction during trial.
The Committee against Torture held Jordan's second periodic review between 29 and 30 April 2010. Various allegations of torture came to light, particularly those stemming from the Intelligence services' facilities.
The Committee expressed its concern regarding the number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment by the police, security services, intelligence services and prison administration. The Committee also alluded to the limited number of investigations carried out by the authorities, while also identify the lack of convictions as a particular problem. The Committee recommends that Jordan remedy the situation by instigating independent investigations, in order to find and prosecute the perpetrators.