Jordanian court jails seven Brotherhood figures over Gaza fundraising, with appeals still open

The verdicts in the case known in Jordan as the fundraising and money-laundering file were issued on Sunday 25 October and reported that evening by Ammon News, then carried by Al Jazeera Arabic, Eremnews, the Palestinian site Amad, Saraya News and, in English, Middle East Monitor, which is editorially sympathetic to the group. Murad al-Adayleh, the Brotherhood’s last General Supervisor before Jordan banned the organisation and confiscated its assets in April 2025, received six months for the misdemeanour of unlawful collection of donations and was acquitted of participation in money laundering. Tariq al-Raqab received six months on the same count. Ahmad al-Zarqan, described as the official responsible for the group’s financial file, received three years, convicted under both the Anti-Money Laundering Law and the fundraising provision, with the court applying the harsher penalty. Aref Hamdan, Ibrahim Hijazi, Mohammed Alayan and Omar Yassin also received three years.

Every outlet states explicitly that the sentences are appealable within one month and are not final — the window closes around 24 November. Ayman Abu al-Rub, a member of parliament for the Umma Party, the renamed Islamic Action Front, confirmed the verdicts and their appealability in remarks paraphrased by Al Jazeera Arabic. The defence, per Al Jazeera citing local media, maintained that the collections were relief work and that all funds went to residents of the Gaza Strip; Amad’s account of the prosecution case describes violations in how money was gathered, managed and accounted for. Al Jazeera Arabic also relays a figure originally reported by Petra, the official state news agency, that amounts formally transferred to relief bodies did not exceed one per cent of donations collected — a government number in circulation since 2025, untested by any independent audit in the reporting available.

Assessment: Read the charge sheet, not the headline. What a Jordanian court convicted on, as reported, is licensing and AML procedure; no outlet records a judicial finding that money moved onward to Hamas. That distinction will be settled only when the reasoned judgment is published, and it is the difference between a compliance prosecution and a terror-finance one. Treat the scale figures with care: the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an advocacy body, put the sum above $40 million this week, while The New Arab in January cited over 30 million dinars — roughly the same quantity, from outlets with opposite sympathies, both sourced to unnamed investigators. The real test now is whether the Umma Party backs the appeals or quietly distances itself from the convicted financial officers.