15 April 2014
By Staff writer
Al Arabiya News
Authorities arrested a Jordanian on Monday after he threw a pair of
shoes at Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur, along with five cabinet
ministers, during a ceremony in the northern city of Jerash, an official
said.
“The prime minister was talking about the economy, when
Mefleh Mahasneh, 65, head of the Jerash countryside society that was
attending the event, stood up and told the prime minister: ‘You raised
the prices’,” the municipality official told Agence France-Presse.
“The
mayor told Mahasneh to stop because it was not his turn to talk.
Mahasneh, an army retiree, got angry and took off his shoe and threw it
towards the stage on which the prime minister and the ministers were
sitting.”
Mahasneh then took off his other shoe and threw it in
the same direction. “The pair of shoes landed on a table on the stage.
Police then arrested Mahasneh.
“I think he was detained for his
own protection because some attendees threatened to take action against
him,” added the official.
A wave of nationwide protests and strikes
were sparked after Nsur’s government raised fuel prices, including house
gas, by up to 52 percent in November 2012. The price surge was imposed
to help cut a government deficit of 3.5 billion dinars (around $5bn),
AFP reported.
Jordanians also took to the streets to protest
growing unemployment and poverty rates, and demanded political and
economic reforms in the kingdom as well as anti-corruption efforts.
Security
personnel present at the event gathered footage of the incident so as
to prevent its dissemination in the media, local news outlets reported.
(With AFP)
Link: .alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/04/15/Jordanian-throws-shoes-at-prime-minister-over-price-rise.html.
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