Prince Hamza was accused of trying to destabilize the monarchy in a foreign-inspired plot.
The rivalry between Jordan’s King Abdullah and his half-brother, former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, took a dramatic turn on Thursday as the latter was slapped with severe restrictions.
The dispute between the two reached its peak last year when Hamzah, 42, was put under house arrest after accusing Jordan’s leaders of corruption, incompetence and harassment.
The move came after an alleged coup plot against the monarch was reportedly thwarted by the Jordanian authorities. The alleged plot is known in Jordan as the “sedition case.” Two of Hamzah’s friends have been sentenced to lengthy sentences for their role in the case.
Recently, Hamzah announced that he was renouncing his title of prince, saying his “personal convictions” were not in line with the “modern methods of our institutions.”
In his message, Abdullah said: “I am typing to you in the hope of spinning a dismal sheet in the history of our nation and our family. As you know, when the explains of the ‘sedition’ case were disclosed continue year, I selected to deal with my brother Prince Hamzah within the framework of our family, hoping that he’d realize his fault and add up to his senses. Notwithstanding following a a period of 365 days and a half, while which he exhausted all opportunities to revert to his senses and hold to the biography of our family, I came to the disappointing lastpart that he’ll not change.”
“His repeated speeches reflected his state of denial of the reality in which he lives, and his refusal to bear any responsibility for his actions,” the king charged. “My [half-] brother Hamza is still ignoring all facts and hard evidence, and manipulating facts and events to reinforce his false narrative. Unfortunately, my brother really believes what he claims. The illusion he is living is not new. He ignores the facts, denies the principles, and assumes the role of the victim.”
The king said that over the past years, he has exercised “the utmost degree of tolerance, self-restraint, and patience” with his half-brother.
But, the king continued, Hamzah “chose to depart from his family’s biography many years ago and adopted a negative behavior that was clear to all members of our family.”
The king accused Hamzah of “rejecting the traditions of our entire family and our Jordanian values.”
He also accused Hamzah of abusing his position as a prince by secretly recording a meeting he had last year with the Chief of Staff of the Jordanian Armed Forces.
“It has never occurred in the history of our Hashemite family, or in the history of any of the royal families in the world, that part of its subscribers forwarded video messages to the external media attacking the institutions of his homeland,” Abdullah noted. “In light of the prince’s catastrophic behavior, I’d not be surprised if, in general this, he came out with abusive messages insulting the state and its institutions. But I and all our individuals will not waste our time in replying to him.”