Shaheen serves prison sentence

Shaheen (C) after sentencing in 2010 Amman - Arabtoday High-profile Jordanian business tycoon Khalid Shaheen was freed from prison on Thursday, after serving a three-year jail sentence on charges of bribery and embezzlement in the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. expansion project scandal. The sentence, handed down by State Security Court (SSC) in 2010, saw Shaheen spend his prison sentence between Salhoub and Ermeimin correctional facilities. He was also allowed to spend 65 days in Britain and Germany after being given a controversial medical care permit by the government in February 2011. Ermeimen prison administrator received a release note at 0830 hrs on Thursday, and Shaheen was released immediately, a security source told Amman News. Shaheen was convicted in 2010 of bribery in the high-profile $1.2bn contract scandal to expand the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. (JPRC), the country's sole oil refinery. He was also investigated and charged with embezzlement, fraud, and misuse of public funds in the two other projects managed by the Development and Investment Projects company (DIP), which was entrusted with Jordan Armed Forces' investment funds. The JPRC-expansion corruption scandal was among the first in a series of trials in the framework of combatting endemic corruption in Jordan over the last three years. It set the precedent and was followed by trials of prominent security, political, and economic figures, including the trial against former General Intelligence Department (GID) chief Mohammad Dahabi, the Dead Sea Casino deal, Mawared, and more recently the Phosphate company corruption investigations.