Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Jordan: Jordan's first woman party leader nabbed for fraud

AMMAN (AFP) — The first woman to lead a Jordanian political party has been arrested over claims she manufactured and sold unlicenced medicine, a security official said on Tuesday.

"(Mona Hussein Abu Bakr) was arrested on Monday night over fraud and violation of the food and drugs law after a complaint that she had manufactured and sold unlicenced medicine," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Three Jordanians and a man from an Arab country have filed an official fraud complaint against Hussein," he said.

A source close to Abu Bakr, who was born in 1957 and set up the centrist National Jordanian Party in 2007, said police took her to a government hospital in Amman on Monday after she suffered a "nervous breakdown".

He said she was under police guard in the hospital and that a petition by Abu Bakr's lawyer to release her on bail had been rejected, without providing further details.

---AFP

No comments: