Islamist inmates stage hunger strike in Jordan

AMMAN, Aug 26 (Reuters) More than 40 Jordanian Islamists suspected of ties to al Qaeda began a hunger strike today to protest at alleged ill treatment and solitary confinement, activists and supporters said.

They said the prisoners were inmates of the high security Swaqa jail which holds several al Qaeda militants convicted over foiled plots to attack US and Israeli targets.

''They are protesting inhumane conditions and their solitary confinement for several months,'' one activist in contact with families of inmates, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

A police source confirmed dozens of prisoners had stopped eating and drinking in the prison but gave no further details.

It is among eight jails holding more than 6,000 common and political prisoners.

Among the most prominent prisoners in Swaqa are Azmi Jayousi, a Jordanian aide of slain al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and fiery preacher Mohammad Chalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf.

Last March, security forces sparked riots in three prisons after they went into one to transfer two Islamist prisoners on death row for killing a US diplomat in Amman in 2002.

A month later further riots erupted in which one inmate was killed and at least 35 prisoners and policemen injured.

Human rights activists complain that following the riots authorities imposed harsher prison conditions in revenge, including solitary confinement for renowned detainees.

Jordan is seeking to improve its civil rights image but is accused by international rights bodies, including Amnesty International and US based Human Rights Watch, of widespread abuse of prisoners, which it denies.

REUTERS PDM RAI2152