The World - News from Jan. 27, 1989

At least 15 political prisoners in Jordan were beaten and put in solitary confinement because their complaints of ill treatment were published by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, relatives say. The relatives spoke on condition of anonymity, saying some of them were warned by security services not to speak about the matter. They said that 15 inmates began a hunger strike on Jan. 19 to protest their treatment at Jordan’s newly built Swaqa Prison. Jordan’s interior minister, Rajai Dajani, denied the allegations of beatings and ill treatment and termed the new prison a “rehabilitation center.”