Jordan sanctions Syria activist for 'illegal activities’

Hasna al-Hariri, a Syrian activist who fled to Jordan, has been transferred to a refugee camp after being warned to halt "illegal activities" in the kingdom.

The 59-year-old widow from Daraa in the south of Syria, a cradle of its anti-regime revolt that erupted in 2011, lost three sons, four brothers as well her husband killed in the conflict and was jailed three times.

Hariri has lived as a refugee in the northern Jordanian city of Irbid since 2014.

But she was summoned Monday by Jordan's security services and transferred together with another son and his family the next day to Azraq camp, Hariri said Thursday, contacted by telephone.

Hariri added that she was "banned from leaving" the guarded facility, which is home to more than 40,000 Syrian refugees.

"They didn't give me a reason, and I don't know what will happen to me," she told AFP from the desert camp in northern Jordan.

Hariri had been warned a month ago to stop her activities within 14 days or face deportation.

A Jordanian government source denied she faced the threat of being sent back to Syria, with which Jordan has been mending fences.

But the source confirmed Hariri was told to stop unspecified "illegal activities".

Jordan "does not allow anyone to violate the law and take advantage of their stay in Jordan to carry out activities that contradict its national interests and its policy of non-interference in the affairs of others", the source said.

Jordan "will not force her to return to Syria and warned her several times about illegal activities that undermine Jordan" but she carried on.

Hariri told AFP she had only been "speaking to family and friends inside Syria on the situation, just like many others of my compatriots".

However, a Syrian war monitoring group accuses her of fraud.

"According to our sources, her case is not linked to political activities but rather to financial scams," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.

"She's been collecting donations pretending it's for families of martyrs in Syria, or for the opposition in the south, but she's been keeping the money for herself," Abdul Rahman claimed.

Hariri denied what she called the "false allegations”.

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"From whom was I able take money? From Syrian refugees? They have trouble buying bread," said Hariri, defying anyone to prove such charges.

A Syrian opposition activist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP Jordanian authorities had asked Hariri to "stop engaging in financial activities and receiving... large sums of money from donors from abroad, under the pretext of distributing them to refugees".

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