Jordanian police investigating attack on opposition leader

Jordanian police investigating attack on opposition leaderAmman  - Jordanian security authorities on Monday were investigating an attack on veteran opposition leader Leith Shbeilat by unknown assailants.

Editorial writers demanded the culprits be brought to justice and the motives behind Sunday's attack be revealed to the public.

Hundreds of people also staged a sit-in Sunday at the Professional Associations Complex to protest the attack on Shbeilat, who formerly served as a lawmaker and head of the Jordan Engineering Association.

Shbeilat, who currently heads an organization for resisting normalization of ties with Israel, suffered bruises and was hospitalized after he was attacked by five men at a bakery where he was buying bread.

He told authorities that the assailants were beaten back by other people at the bakery and managed to escape in a car that was waiting for them on the other side of the road.

"The initial investigations indicate that the incident has no background and that it happened after Shbeilat had an intense argument with a group of people," Public Security Department spokesman Major Mohammad Khatib said Monday.

However, Shbeilat was quoted by local newspapers as saying that the attack had come on the heels of a lecture he delivered recently at the Socialist Thought Forum, calling on the government to fight corruption, respect the constitution and to cease all forms of normalization with Israel. (dpa)