Jordan arrests 17 reform protesters

People take to streets to demonstrate against income tax law adopted in November

Seventeen Jordanians were arrested over protests against a controversial fiscal reform, a judicial source in Amman said on Friday.

The attorney general decided to “arrest 17 people who he accused of participating the previous day in a protest near the prime minister’s office and of provoking trouble which resulted in police and members of the security forces being wounded”, the source said.

A thousand Jordanians had taken to the streets of Amman on Thursday to protest against an income tax law adopted in November under an austerity programme aimed at reducing public debt. They gathered near Prime Minister Omar Al Razzaz’s office, which was cordoned off by security forces. “Down with the tax law,” read one sign, held aloft by demonstrators calling for “reforms and change”.

“We want a government of patriots, not a gang of thieves,” the protesters said.

Lawmakers on November 18 approved an IMF-backed income tax bill after making amendments to a controversial draft law that sparked a week of angry protests in June.