Dozens of Jordanian teachers carried out a mass sit-in late Saturday night in front of the Professional Associations Complex in Irbid, 80 km northern the capital, Amman.
This comes in line with the Public Prosecutor's decision to renew an arrest warrant for the detained members of the Teachers Syndicate.
According to video footages published on social media, protesters were shouting slogans against Prime Minister Omar Razzaz and Interior Minister Salameh Hammad.
The protests come in light of the police’s raid of the Teachers Syndicate headquarters in Amman and 11 of its branches across the country, shuttering them and arresting all 13 syndicate board members on July 25.
Protesters renewed their call for a new sit-in near the cabinet’s headquarters after the security services prevented their demonstration on Wednesday by closing the roads leading to its vicinity and arresting some teachers before releasing them later that day.
The Jordanian Center for Human Rights issued a statement calling for respecting the rule of law and not taking punitive decisions without a fair trial and referral to competent judiciary.
It also demanded the release of the union’s leaders and called for preserving the right to assemble.
Meanwhile, Razza said last week that the Jordanian state is strong by enforcing the law on all, stressing that the state is “not limited to one person, professional association or political party.”
Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Odeh Adaileh said the suspended union continues to threaten to organize demonstrations, strikes, and sit-ins that harm the state’s vital facilities and their sustainability in violation of the public health law and defense orders that aim to protect citizens’ health.
Education Minister Tayseer Nueimi, for his part, said the union had committed “clear violations” against the law and continued to use the language of dictation and bullying, rejecting all offers to develop education.
“It has become a tool that harms public interests, he indicated, adding that the union has disrupted the constitutional right of students to education, which is “guaranteed by international law and convention,” he noted.
