Former Jordanian member of parliament Wasfi al-Rawashdeh didn't know that the letter he addressed via Facebook Jan. 5 to Jordan's King Abdullah II would lead him to appear the following day before the State Security Court (a military court) on charges of undermining the system of governance under the Jordanian Penal Code. In the letter, which he titled “The last call,” Rawashdeh criticized the unprecedented corruption in Jordan and wondered, “Is the king aware of what is going on?”

Rawashdeh is one out of a long list of activists who were arrested by the Jordanian intelligence service in January and were referred to the prosecutor of the State Security Court. These include retired intelligence service Gen. Mohammed Abdul Karim Otoum who was arrested Jan. 12 after he called for a political reform conference. Among those arrested were also citizens who launched social networking campaigns aimed at boycotting goods in protest against the economic approach of the government.

Political activists have accused the Jordanian authorities of widely using loose charges in their legislation in order to muzzle the peaceful opposition calling for political reform, anti-corruption measures and solutions to the economic crisis. The arrests came after the government adopted in December a set of economic measures aimed at raising consumer prices and imposing taxes so as to provide the 450 million Jordanian dinars (about $635 million) needed to fill part of the 2017 budget deficit, which amount to about $1.1 billion.

Hisham al-Hisa, an activist taking part in the protests, was accused three times of repeated verbal insult and unlawful assembly after he took part in the peaceful protests against the Jordanian regime in 2011-2013, before the Arab Spring came to a halt in Syria and transformed into a fierce war that had repercussions on Jordan. Hisa told Al-Monitor, “The State Security Court is holding a gun to the head of advocates of reform in Jordan."