Jordan hangs 6 for killing security personnel after 9-year pause in death penalties

Jordan hanged on Sunday six men convicted of killing security personnel, a government official said, ending a nine-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said in a statement that the men had been convicted in “terrorism and criminal cases” that led to the deaths and injuries of police officers and soldiers.

According to the Jordanian Roya News outlet, the executions were carried out at dawn Sunday.

Two of the men were involved in a 2018 case in the city of Salt, where six security officers were killed during a raid, the Jordanian government said.

Another was convicted of killing a senior police officer during protests over fuel prices in 2022.

Others were convicted in drug-related cases in which security officers were killed during armed clashes between 2014 and 2018.

Momani said more than 100 people remain on death row in Jordan and that executions would proceed “one by one.”

He added that the sentences were carried out to deliver justice “for those who died protecting” the country.

The government spokesman did not elaborate on why these sentences were carried out after a nine-year pause in executions.

Jordan applies the death penalty sparingly, mainly in cases involving terrorism and serious violent crime, and last hanged 15 people in 2017.