Amman: Prince Jordan Hamza is among 25 witnesses who have been asked to testify by the defense team of a former belief of King Abdullah who was at the trial on charges of agitation to disrupt the monarchy, the defense lawyer said on Wednesday.
Mohamed Afif told Reuters it would arrive at the court to decide whether to call Prince Hamza, the King’s side brother, as a witness.
“The final decision is up to the court, this is the court jurisdiction and has the last word about whether it will call these witnesses or not,” Afif said.
The court will respond to defense requests in the session on Thursday, Afif said, after sending a list of 25 potential witnesses on Wednesday.
Among them were Prime Minister Bisher Al Khasilneh, two princes, cabinet ministers and some little nobles, he said.
The trial began last week behind the closed door, with the authorities said that the process was secret because of the sensitivity of the case.
The scandal surprised Jordan when it appeared in March, because it seemed to expose the crack in the powerful Hashemite family who had become a flare stability in a turbulent area in recent years.
Hamza, Prince Terrace in the midst of the trial, was accused of being related to the parties with foreign relations to damage the authority of the king.
He avoided a sentence in April after promising loyalty to the king, a crisis that caused the arrest of his house.
The accusations against the two defendants, Bassem Awadallah and Sherif Hassan Zaid, including agitation to damage the royal political system, actions that threaten public security and sowing incitement.
Both of them begged innocently.
If punished, they can face imprisonment for up to 30 years.
Some legal experts and civil activists have questioned the legality of the trial where the main defendant Prince Hamza has not been charged.
They said special courts were not independent of the justice and did not have a fair trial standards.
Authorities said the trial process was fair.
Officials said proof of prosecution showed that Hamza wanted Awadallah to use a close relationship with the Prince of the Crown of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman to seek support for Hamza’s offer to become king.
Awadallah, who challenged the conservative establishment against the liberal policy and had a close relationship with senior US officials, promised to lobby in the name of Hamza in the Western capital and Saudi Arabia, in accordance with the accusation sheet.
Defense in the trial of Jordan asked the court to invite Prince Hamza to testify
