Businessman Khaled Shaheen Amman – Norma Neemat Businessman Khaled Shaheen landed in the Queen Alia International Airport on Wednesday evening. Shaheen is being sentenced for to issuing a tender for the expansion of Jordan’s Petroleum Refinery . Upon his arrival, the handcuffed businessman was handed over to Colonel Ziad Bakir, Director of the Juweida Correction and Rehabilitation Center, under tight guarded security, and was taken to Juweida Prison, south of the capital Amman. The convicted businessman arrived to the airport accompanied by Diplomat Majid Qatarneh and Brigadier General Adnan Fraih, Director of the Traffic Department; who is fluent in German and has visited Germany several times during the last period to communicate with their official agencies to put them in the picture on Shaheen's case and the importance of returning him back to Jordan. It is worth mentioning that Khalid Shaheen who is sentenced for 3 years imprisonment for issuing a tender for Petroleum Refinery Expansion, was allowed by Jordanian authorities to leave the country to seek treatment in the United States last February. The permission to le thim leave in the period of his sentence was not met well by Jordanians and caused anger towards the Marouf Bakhit government. The Ministers of Justice Hasan Majali and Health Minister Yassine Al-Hasban both resigned, resulting in the Interior Minister Saad Hayel walking out and in ministerial reforms afterwards.
The Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications, and the spokesman for the Jordanian government, Abdullah Abu Rumman reaffirmed in a press statement that the convict Khaled Shaheen will return from Germany to Jordan on Wednesday evening, accompanied by a diplomat from the Foreign Ministry and an officer of the General Security Services. Abu Rumman pointed out Shaheen he will be handed to the competent authorities to serve his sentence upon his arrival. He added that the return of Shaheen is a result of vigorous diplomatic and legal efforts carefully coordinated between the ministries and institutions and state agencies in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and accompanied by follow-up security checks. He reported that a series of intensive diplomatic calls were conducted through various channels and with several parties and through their Embassy in London and with the British government, when the convicted was in Britain; which included legal payments and others related to administrative procedures prepared and coordinated with relevant state agencies; that would lead to restore Shaheen to Jordan.
Abu Rumman explained that in that same period the United States had canceled Shaheen’s indefinite Visa to enter the US. Within that period Shaheen moved to Germany for surgery, where then it was coordinated with British authorities to cancel his Visa of entry to Britain as well to ensure that he does not return there. He added that: "Jordan’s Foreign Ministry and the Directorate of Public Security has immediately initiated, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice and other organisations and institutions of the state, intense calls with the German government, particularly through our embassy in Berlin, and provided administrative and legal payments demanding to hand over Shaheen, and restore him to Jordan.” The Directorate of Public Security had issued a red bulletin for world countries through the International Police (Interpol) to arrest Shaheen in order to return him to Jordan. Abu Rumman pointed out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a diplomat to pursue this matter with the competent authorities in Germany. The Directorate of General Security sent a senior officer to Germany to pursue administrative and legal measures to restore the convict to Jordan. Also, during Shaheen’s presence in Germany, there was information suggesting that Shaheen was intending to go to Canada; therefore calls were made to the Canadian government to ensure the prevention of granting him a visa of entry to Canada.