AMMAN — Six men were executed by authorities at dawn on Sunday after being convicted of killing 10 law enforcement officers in various incidents around the Kingdom, official sources said.

 

“We have carried out the execution of six men who were convicted of murdering 10 law-enforcement officers in two terrorism related cases and three drug bust operations,” Minister of Government Communication and Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said.

 

The minister said two people were executed for murdering six law enforcement officers in August 2018.

 

Convicted terrorists Mahmoud Nayef Musa and Anwar Adel Saleh, who were executed on Sunday, were part of a group known as the Salt Terror Cell who carried out a terrorist attack near a joint patrol of public security and gendarmerie forces on August 10, 2018, near the Fuheis Festival, 19 kilometres west of Amman.

 

The blast killed two gendarmes and injured six members of the patrol.

 

On August 11, 2018, four security personnel were killed during an operation in Salt's Naqab Al Dabour region, 27 kilometres west of Amman

 

The security personnel were part of a joint force conducting the operation to arrest suspects believed to be involved in the Fuheis bombing. Five suspects were arrested, and three others were killed.

 

The deceased officers were identified by Momani as: Lt. Col. Muath Damani, Warrant Officer Ali Qawaqzeh, Sergeant Hisham Aqarbeh, Corporal Mohammad Bani Yassin, Corporal Mohammad Hiajneh and Corporal Ahmad Zu’bi.

 

In another case, according to Momani, Ibrahim Mansour was executed for being part of a group that ambushed a police patrol in Maan in December 2022.

 

The attack led to the death of Col. Abdulrazzaq Dalabeeh, who served as deputy director of the Maan Police Directorate.

 

Meanwhile, convicted criminal Ihab Maher Kamal, a drug dealer, was executed for murdering Lt. Ahmad Rawahneh, an Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) officer, during a drug raid in Irbid in November 2018, Momani added.

 

The fifth convict that was put to death was Hamzeh Mansour, a drug dealer, who killed Corporal Hussam Abbadi during a drug raid in 2014, according to Momani.

 

The last convict to be executed on Sunday was Khalid Assaf Fayez, also a drug dealer, who shot and killed Sgt. Mohammad Salameh Saqarat, an agent who was part of a force that raided a public garden in Zawahreh neighbourhood in Zarqa in 2017, Momani added.

 

Sunday’s executions were carried out after the State Security Court (SSC) verdicts were upheld by the Court of Cassation, veteran legal experts have said in recent interviews with The Jordan Times.

 

Afterwards, their files are sent to the Cabinet for endorsement. Finally, a Royal Decree has to be issued to approve the executions, according to the veteran legal experts.

 

Before any execution is carried out, “the attorney general reviews the files for one last time to make sure procedures are correct, and that there has been no last-minute settlement between the victims’ families and the defendant”, which automatically leads to cancelling the death penalty and replacing it with a prison term.

 

Sunday’s executions were carried out under the supervision of the SSC Attorney General in accordance with the text of Article 359 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to Momani.