and his eldest son Prince Abdullah bin Hussein ascended to the throne of Jordan, having two weeks previously been designated to succeed his father as ruler in place of the king's brother, Crown Prince Hassan bin Talal. On the same day, in compliance with his father's wish, King Abdullah II decreed that he, in turn, would be succeeded not by a son of his own but by his half-brother, Hamzah, who was therefore accorded the title of crown prince. Nearly six years later, on 28 November 2004, King Abdullah removed Hamzah as crown prince. In a letter from Abdullah to Hamzah, read on Jordanian state television, he said, "Your holding this symbolic position has restrained your freedom and hindered our entrusting you with certain responsibilities that you are fully qualified to undertake." No successor to the title was named at the time, but some analysts believed it probable that Abdullah intended to name his own son, Prince Hussein, to succeed him at some point in the future. Article 28(B) of Jordan's constitution provides that the king's eldest son automatically succeeds to the crown upon the monarch's death unless the king has designated one of his brothers to inherit the throne as crown prince, but Abdullah II confirmed that his son Hussein would succeed him by designating him as crown prince on 2 July 2009. House arrest On 3 April 2021, the BBC published a video of Hamzah in which he reported that he has been placed under house arrest as part of a crackdown on critics. It was stated that the video had been passed to the BBC through Hamzah's lawyer. On 7 April 2021, King Abdullah II publicly hinted that his tension with Hamzah, who had pledged loyalty to him two days after his house arrest began, was ending and that Hamzah was now "in his palace under my protection." Abdullah also stated that the crisis which resulted in Hamzah's house arrest started when Jordan's military chief of staff visited Hamzah and warned him to stop attending meetings with critics of the government. In April 2022, Hamzah relinquished his royal title of prince, stating his "personal convictions" were not in line with "the approaches, trends and modern methods of our institutions". A month earlier, he had reportedly apologized to the King in a letter, wishing to "turn the page on this chapter in our country's and our family's history".