Palace intrigue exposes fragility of Jordan’s social contract

Palace intrigue exposes fragility of Jordan’s social contract

A military tribunal in Jordan this week convicted Bassem Awadallah, a former finance minister who rose to become chief of the royal court, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a distant cousin of King Abdullah, of sedition. The charges related to a confused April plot to advance the aspirations of Prince Hamzah, the king's half-brother.

Before sentencing them to 15 years in jail, the military judge said they had "sought to create chaos and sedition in Jordanian society".

Prince Hamzah's ambitions to succeed to the Hashemite throne were thwarted when he was removed as crown prince in 2004 and later replaced with Hussein bin Abdullah, Abdullah's firstborn son. Prince Hamzah was put under house arrest in April. He pledged allegiance to the king and was not tried.

The brief, secret trial of Awadallah and Sharif Hassan was a foregone conclusion. They were not allowed to call Hamzah "” the pretender at the heart of the conspiracy, according to the leaked charge-sheet "” nor any other defence witness. This does not look like closure.

It fails to address deep divisions in society and arguably aggravates them by scapegoating. Awadallah is a western-educated Palestinian from Jerusalem, part therefore of Jordan's Palestinian majority. He may be an alternative lightning rod