In response to the ruling by Jordan’s State Security Court to uphold its conviction and five-year prison sentence against political activist Ayman Sanduka on 15 September for a Facebook post addressed to the King in which he criticized Jordan’s policies, Kristine Beckerle, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said:
Equating criticism of government policy with incitement against the regime is a dangerous distortion of justice and sends a chilling message that peaceful dissent, including that related to Israel, is not tolerated in Jordan.
Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International.
“The decision to uphold Ayman Sanduka’s conviction is a deeply alarming sign of Jordan’s accelerating rollback of the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Ayman Sanduka should never have been detained in the first place; he was imprisoned solely for expressing his views online. Equating criticism of government policy with incitement against the regime is a dangerous distortion of justice and sends a chilling message that peaceful dissent, including that related to Israel, is not tolerated in Jordan.
“The Jordanian authorities must drop all charges and immediately and unconditionally release Ayman Sanduka. Arrest or detention as punishment for the legitimate exercise of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, is arbitrary and violates Jordan’s obligations under international law.”
Background
On 21 December 2023, the State Security Court prosecutor summoned and detained Ayman Sanduka, a political activist and mathematics teacher, over a Facebook post he wrote in October 2023 addressed to the King of Jordan, in which he criticized Jordan’s diplomatic relations with Israel. On 7 January 2025, the State Security Court convicted Sanduka of “incitement to oppose the political regime” and sentenced him to five years in prison.
In July 2025, the Court of Cassation ruled that Sanduka’s post did not amount to incitement but instead “fell under the lesser offense of ‘insulting the King,’” and ordered the case to be retried. However, on 15 September 2025, the State Security Court upheld its original ruling. The State Security Court is a military court that fails to meet international standards of impartiality and independence and is often used to prosecute civilians in violation of international law. Since the October 2023 Israeli offensive in Gaza, Jordanian authorities have used broad laws, including the Penal Code and the Cybercrimes Law, to target journalists, activists, and others who express opinions critical of government policies toward Israel.
