Jordan's former crown prince under house arrest over alleged coup

Jordanian authorities raided the palace of the kingdom’s former crown prince on Saturday and arrested two senior aides after uncovering what intelligence officials believe was an attempted coup against the ruling monarch, King Abdullah.

The arrests focused on a network allegedly connected to Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a half-brother of King Abdullah, who was removed from his post 16 years ago.

Prince Hamzah said in a video recording he was under house arrest and had been told to stay at home and not contact anyone.

Speaking in English in the video, passed by his lawyer to the BBC, he said he was not part of any foreign conspiracy and denounced the ruling system as corrupt.

“(Jordanians’) well being has been put second by a ruling system that has decided that its personal interests, financial interests, that its corruption is more important than the lives and dignity and future of the 10 million people who live here,” he said.

Jordan’s military leadership denied reports that Prince Hamzah had been arrested. However, intelligence officials in the region and in Europe said they believed the prominent royal had in effect been placed under house arrest.

Reports of Saudi meddling in Jordanian offers have been common, part of a decades-long struggle for influence between the two royal houses. The Hashemites who rule Jordan also controlled holy sites including Mecca and Medina until they were captured by the House of Saud nearly a century ago.

Amman last year issued a statement heading off suggestions of a threat to Abdullah’s custodianship of the Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam and a key plank of his family’s legitimacy, amid rumours that Israel might recognise Saudi control of the site as part of a wider diplomatic accord between the pair.