No House vote expected to lift immunity of 3 MPs after lawsuits dropped

AMMAN — The Lower House’s Legal Committee on Wednesday received a notification from the judiciary to withdraw its request to lift the parliamentary immunity of three out of six MPs as the lawsuits against them have been dropped.

Upon a request from the judiciary, submitted through the government, the committee recently recommended that the parliamentary immunity of MPs Ahmad Safadi (Amman, 3rd District), Qusai Dmeisi (Zarqa, 4th District), Mohammad Dawaimeh (Amman, 2nd District), Mirza Bollad (Zarqa, 1st District), Motaz Abu Rumman (Shabab Al Wifaq list) and Tarek Khoury (Zarqa, 1st District) be lifted so that the judiciary can proceed with lawsuits citizens have filed against them.

Deputy Mustafa Amawi, the head of the panel, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that the committee has received a request from the judiciary to halt procedures for lifting of the immunity of Safadi, Dawaimeh and Bollad because the plaintiffs have dropped their lawsuits against them.

“The lawsuits filed against the three deputies were of a criminal nature and once the charges are dropped, the immunity lifting is automatically annulled,” Amawi said.

He added that the lawsuits against the three remaining MPs — Abu Rumman, Dmeisi and Khoury — have not been withdrawn and thus the Lower House will move ahead with procedures to lift their immunity. 

“Abu Rumman, Dmeisi and Khoury will face charges related to slander, using automatic weapons, and damaging the Kingdom’s relations with other countries and criticising His Majesty King Abdullah’s recent speech, respectively,” Amawi said.

“The House will examine lifting the parliamentary immunity of Abu Rumman, Dmeisi and Khoury during next Sunday’s session.”

In April last year, the Lower House voted to end the suspension of Dmeisi, who had been penalised for having had an altercation with a colleague, which led to a shooting incident at Parliament.

In September 2013, Dmeisi’s membership was frozen for a year following the incident, which also led to the dismissal of Talal Sharif (Amman, 1st District) who fired at least two bullets from his AK47 during the quarrel.

The State Security Court prosecutor recently requested that the Chamber lift the parliamentary immunity of Khoury after a lawsuit was filed against him over accusations of insulting Jordanians in tweets he posted following King Abdullah’s televised address to the nation earlier this month.

According to Paragraph A of Article 86 of the Constitution, the lifting of immunity has to be passed by an overwhelming majority of MPs in a full House session.