Jordan hangs six after nine-year death penalty pause

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

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

Two of the men were involved in a 2018 case in the city of Salt, where six security officers were killed during a raid. 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 says more than 100 people remain on death row in Jordan and that executions will proceed “one by one.” He adds that the sentences were carried out to deliver justice “for those who died protecting” the country.

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