Academic pleads not guilty to insulting Jordan king

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

AMMAN (AFP) — A Palestinian-born woman academic pleaded not guilty on Tuesday at the beginning of her trial for allegedly insulting King Abdullah II and discriminating against students of Jordanian origin.

The state security court accused Zuhryeh Abdul Haq, 60, a vice dean for education at the private Israa University, of "harassing students of Jordanian origin, mocking their accent, making fun of their traditional (red-and-white) keffiyeh (headdress) and calling them retarded."

Abdul Haq, born in the West Bank city of Nablus, "prevented her colleagues from hanging the king's pictures inside their offices, saying 'I am the king, I am the state,'" according to the charge sheet.

"Her actions were insulting to his majesty the king and his prestige," it said,...