Jordan's Prince Hamzah Says He Was Confined and Criticizes Government

I'm making this recording today

to try to explain

what's happened over the last few hours,

uh, with me.

I had a visit from the Chief of, uh, the

General Staff of the Jordanian Armed

Forces this morning,

in which he

informed me that I was not allowed to go

out to communicate

with people or to meet with them.

Because that in the

meetings that I had been present in or

on social media relating to visits that I've

made, there's been criticism

of the government or the, uh, the King.

I asked him if I was the one

criticizing, he said no.

He said, but, uh,

this was a warning from him, from the

chief of police and from the chief of the security services, uh, the

Mukhabarat,

uh, that I should not leave my house, that

I could only visit family,

that I could not tweet,

and that I could not communicate with people.

Since then, a number

of the people I know

or my friends have

been arrested.

Uh, my security has been removed

and the internet and

phone lines have been cut.

This is, uh, my

last form of communication, uh,

satellite

internet that I have, and

I've been informed by the

company that they are instructed to cut it,

so it may be the last time I'm able

to communicate.

As I said to the Chief

of Staff when he came,

I am not the person responsible

for the breakdown in governance, for

the corruption, and

for the incompetence

that has been prevalent in

our governing structure for the

last fifteen to twenty years,

and has been getting worse by the year.

I am not responsible for the lack

of faith that people have in their

institutions.

They are responsible.

Unfortunately, this

country has gone from one that is--

was

at the forefront of the region in

terms of education and healthcare, in terms of

human dignity and freedoms,

to one in which,

uh, even to criticize a small

aspect of a policy leads to arrest and

abuse by the security services.

And it's reached

the point where no one is able to

speak

or,

um, express an opinion on anything without

being

bullied, arrested, harassed and

threatened.

This is a very sad and unfortunate

turn for a country that, as

I said, used to be in the forefront

of the region.

And this why