Two police officers detained for ‘assaulting motorist’ in Irbid

AMMAN — Two police officers on Monday were ordered detained by the Irbid police prosecutor on charges of beating up a motorist who failed to pull over when instructed by a patrol last week, official sources said.

The Thursday alleged beating incident was recorded by an unknown individual and the video went viral later the same day.

The two officers were part of seven police personnel who were involved in an alleged beating incident of Tareq Omari, an employee at King Abdullah I University Hospital, who failed to pull over when a police patrol ordered him to stop on an Irbid highway in the morning, a senior police source said Tuesday.

“We are currently investigating the incident and more officers could be charged based on our investigation,” the senior police official told The Jordan Times.

Jordan University of Science and Technology physics professor Ahmad Omari, who is Tareq’s uncle, said a team of lawyers is representing Tareq, a father of two children.

“Tareq was returning home at 7am from a night shift and was in a hurry because his mother was sick; he wanted to take her to the hospital and failed to pull over when instructed by a police patrol,” Ahmad said.

Tareq waved back at police “and thought that they understood that there was an emergency situation and he could not stop and looked in his mirror and noticed that they did not follow him”, according to Ahmad Omari.

“Tareq dropped a friend at Huwara town and when he returned to the highway the same police patrol pulled him over with the help of two other police vehicles,” the professor told The Jordan Times.

The uncle added that “Tareq panicked and locked the windows and doors of his vehicle but he was eventually taken out and beaten up by several police officers.”

“When he was taken to the police station they beat him up again and were cursing him and later sent him to the prosecutor on charges of resisting arrest,” Ahmad added.

But the prosecutor, according to the uncle, decided to “refer Ahmad to a hospital after noticing beating marks on him”.

The following day, Ahmad added, the victim filed a complaint against the police and later in the day “we received a call from a high-level official at the police apologising for the incident and asking us to file a complaint at the office of the police criminal prosecutor after seeing the video.”

“We were assured by high-level police officials that any police officer found guilty will be prosecuted legally, and they assured us that it was an isolated incident and that the safety and security of Jordanians remain their priority,” he said.

The uncle added that he appreciates the cooperation and reassurance by law enforcement officials that “justice will prevail for our son.”