Jordan, 2021 — palace coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 3 April 2021, corresponding to the April 2021 royal sedition affair in Jordan, centered on Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, the half-brother of King Abdullah II. On 3 April 2021, Jordanian authorities arrested around nineteen to twenty people over an alleged plot targeting the country's security and placed Prince Hamzah under house arrest. Hamzah, a son of the late King Hussein, had been crown prince from 1999 until King Abdullah stripped him of the title in 2004.
Among those arrested were his chief of staff, a royal family member named Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, and Bassem Awadallah, a former Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court and envoy to Saudi Arabia with close ties to the Saudi crown prince. Officials described a complex plot to destabilize the kingdom by promoting Hamzah as an alternative to the king. Hamzah released video statements rejecting the accusations as retaliation for his criticism of government corruption, then signed a letter reaffirming loyalty to Abdullah on 5 April, and on 7 April the king declared the sedition quashed.
In July 2021 Awadallah and bin Zaid were convicted of sedition and sentenced to fifteen years. The 3 April 2021 coding matches the arrests.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
66304032021
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: King Abdullah II quashed the alleged sedition and confined Prince Hamzah to his palace.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Associated Press
Tribune-Review
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →