Jordan supercasino secret deal was personally approved by prime minister

Exclusive: Documents reveal Ma’arouf al-Bakhit gave green light to contract for Dead Sea Casino, despite public denials See Jordanian PM’s letter about the Dead Sea Casino deal Jordan’s prime minister personally authorised a secret contract to build an extra-legal supercasino complex, despite publicly denying responsibility for it, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. The multimillion-dollar Dead Sea casino deal is now frozen and has been the focus of anti-corruption street protests and parliamentary crises. It has been controversial both because gambling is illegal in Jordan and because the government faces a $1.4bn (£890m) penalty if the 50-year contract is cancelled. Ma’arouf al-Bakhit, the prime minister implicated in what has become known as “Casinogate”, was reappointed by Jordan’s King Abdullah in February to introduce constitutional reforms, after an eruption of popular protest inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Bakhit, who was also prime minister when the casino contract was signed in 2007, narrowly survived parliamentary impeachment over the scandal in June, while the tourism minister at the time, Osama Dabbas, was successfully impeached for his role in overseeing the deal and now faces trial. Bakhit told MPs in June that he had not been told of the terms of the casino agreement or the penalties the government faced if the contract was broken. But confidential Jordanian state papers from 2007 — which were not shown to MPs at the time of the parliamentary hearings — reveal that the cabinet voted to accept the highly profitable agreement. In a letter sent to the tourism minister on 10 September 2007 and signed by Bakhit , the prime minister said that the cabinet had “decided to accept the agreement” to develop a casino complex by the Dead Sea as a legitimate “touristic activity” and told Dabbas to sign it with the London-based developer Oasis. Other correspondence between the two ministers in August and September 2007 shows Bakhit both saw the tenders in advance and the subsequent contract — a copy of which has also been passed to the Guardian and included a confidentiality clause to prevent public discussion of its contents. Soon afterwards, the development was suspended for fear of boosting support for the Islamic opposition. A recently released 2008 Wikileaks cable includes a report from the then US ambassador to Jordan, David Hale, on the earlier stages of the Dead Sea Casino scandal and cites the figure of $1.4bn as the contract cancellation penalty, as well as attempts by the Jordanian government to offer Oasis — which is seeking damages — alternative development land as compensation. Parliament’s refusal this summer to impeach Bakhit, who himself referred the scandal to Jordan’s anti-corruption commission when he was reappointed prime minister this year, provoked protests in Amman and elsewhere. Demonstrators called for the dissolution of the “parliament of shame” — regarded as having scapegoated the former tourism minister to protect Bakhit and other senior politicians — and for “the casino government” to go. The Jordanian regime is a linchpin of western and conservative Arab influence in the Middle East. Western governments and Saudi Arabia have sharply increased aid to Jordan since the toppling of the Egyptian and Tunisian dictators in the spring. Secret Jordanian state correspondence seen by the Guardian also shows that licences for two earlier casino developments were issued in December 2003 by a previous government led by prime minister Faisal al-Fayez (and negotiated under his predecessor, Aki Abu al-Ragheb in April of that year): one to be built in Aqaba on the Red Sea and the other near the Sheikh Hussein bridge over the Jordan river, linking Jordan to northern Israel. Like the Dead Sea project, the 2003 contract runs for 50 years. The licence for the casinos — which have also yet to be built — was issued to Ayla Corporation, a company owned by Khaled al-Masri, a well-connected businessman also involved in the 2007 Dead Sea bid. Fayez is now the speaker of the Jordanian parliament and in June played a central role in the investigation of the casino scandal and impeachment hearings, allowing Bakhit to speak in his own defence but barring the former tourism minister Dabbas from doing so. Several MPs walked out and submitted their resignations in protest. Jordan Middle East Seumas Milne guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.