Arabic press review: Jordan teachers' strike enters third week

Jordan teachers' strike enters third week

The open-ended strike by public school teachers in Jordan continued for a third week in a row, while the teachers syndicate said the strike will not end until all demands are met, the London-based newspaper, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, reported.

"More than a million and a half students in Jordanian public schools are still waiting for a solution to the crisis between the Jordanian teachers syndicate and the government, and for the new school year to start," the report said.

Teachers want a 50 percent pay rise, which they described as a right they have been entitled to - and which was agreed on - since 2014. However, the Jordanian government has rejected the percentage, and instead proposed that raises be determined based on performance, which the syndicate dismissed.

Omar Razzaz's government fears that such a crisis might lead to a repetition of last year's scenario, where protests led to the dissolution of the government. Razzaz was the education minister at the time.

Officers calling Egyptians to protest

A group of Egyptian officers close to the army's detained former chief of staff, Lieutenant General Sami Annan, called on Egyptians to demonstrate against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and demand that he steps down, according to Al-Khaleej.

Egypt's Officers Front said on their Facebook page that military forces will stand by the protesters, the way it did during the Arab Spring protests in that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.

Thousands of Islamist suspects sentenced to death in Iraq

The Nasiriyah prison holds 10,973 prisoners convicted of terrorism, including 6,373 suspects that have been sentenced to death, an Iraqi official was quoted as saying by Arabi21 website.

Hakem al-Zamili, a leader in the Sadrist movement, said that 176 of those sentenced to death are non-Iraqi Arabs and foreigners.

"What is interesting and surprising is that only 37 people were executed in 2018, while no death sentence was carried out in 2019", he said.

Zamili called for the executions to be carried out, underlining that the amount paid to feed and provide medical services for the prisoners is at $100,000 per day, which amounts for $ 3 million per month and $ 36 million per year.

"What's the point of courts, the judiciary and the efforts done by the security and military establishment to capture them if these executions will not take place", he said.

Chief of Algeria’s former ruling party detained

On Thursday, Algerian officials announced the detention of Mohamed Djemai, the leader of its former ruling party, as authorities deal with months of mass protests ahead of presidential election in December.  

The court in Algiers accused the National Liberation Front chief of concealing judicial proceedings and the destruction of official files and documents.  

The Annahar newspaper said Djemai had conspired with a female judge in the destruction of a court’s documents.

The report said the secretary general is also suspected of threatening and insulting a well-known figure via text messages.

Meanwhile, the public prosecutor ordered Djemai’s wife to be placed under pre-trial detention over charges of impersonation.