AMMAN, Jordan: Jordanian government rebuked New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) for criticizing the kingdom's arrest of four parliamentarians after they paid condolences to family of al-Qaeda terror network chief in Iraq Abu Musab Az-Zarqawi.

“This is considered... an insult to the majority of Jordanians,” government spokesman Nasser Jawdeh said while speaking at a news conference.

Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike north of Baghdad on June 8. The four lawmakers — members of Jordan's the Islamic Action Front — attended his wake in his native Jordan on June 9. One described Zarqawi as a "martyr."

Two days later, they were arrested and charged with "instigating sectarian strife" and "fueling national discord" and jailed for 15 days.

The rights group issued a statement over the weekend saying that "expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime."

Jawdeh said Jordanians were offended by the group's suggestion that visiting the wake of a "man who murdered their relatives ... isn't a crime." Jordanians also, he said, were surprised Human Rights Watch considered the lawmakers to have exercised "legitimate freedom of speech."

Last November, triple hotel bombings in Amman by suicide bombers working for Zarqawi killed 60 civilians.

The human rights watchdog should “apologize” to the families of 60 civilians, he said.