Capital punishment in Jordan
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Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
is a legal penalty in
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
. The country had a moratorium on capital punishment between 2006 and 2014. In late 2014 the moratorium was lifted and 11 people were executed. Two more executions followed in 2015, 15 executions took place in 2017 and one in 2021. The method of execution is
hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
, although
shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...
was previously the sole method for carrying out executions.


History

Between 2000 and the imposition of a moratorium in 2006 there had been 41 executions, either for murder, terrorism or sexual offences. In 2005 King
Abdullah II of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبدالله الثاني بن الحسين , translit=ʿAbd Allāh aṯ-ṯānī ibn al-Ḥusayn; born 30 January 1962) is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of t ...
stated that: "in coordination with the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, we would like to modify our Penal Code. Jordan could soon become the first country in the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
without capital punishment." A moratorium on the death penalty was subsequently imposed the following year. In 2008 and 2010 Jordan abstained to vote on the
United Nations moratorium on the death penalty At Italy's instigation, the UN moratorium on the death penalty resolution was presented by the EU in partnership with eight co-author member States to the General Assembly of the United Nations, calling for general suspension (not abolition) ...
. In November 2014 the Jordanian cabinet formed a committee to explore whether Jordan should reinstate the application of capital punishment. On 21 December 2014 11 persons were hanged, all men who were convicted of murder in 2005 and 2006. These were the first executions in the country since June 2006; 122 sentences of capital punishment had been handed out since. Shortly before the executions Interior Minister Hussein Al-Majali had stated that capital punishment might be reinstated due to a major debate on the subject, and with the public believing that a recent rise in crime was caused by non-application of the death penalty. The lifting of the moratorium was criticized by human rights organisations. On 4 February 2015, shortly after discovering Jordanian pilot
Muath al-Kasasbeh Muath Safi Yousef al-Kasasbeh ( ar, معاذ صافي يوسف الكساسبة, Muʿaḏ Ṣāfī Yūsuf al-Kasāsibah  South Levantine pronunciation: ; 29 May 1988 – 3 January 2015) was a Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who was captur ...
had been killed by the
Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
, Jordan executed
Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi ( ar, ساجدة مبارك عطروس الريشاوي} 1970 – 4 February 2015) was a failed suicide bomber. She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist act in the 9 November ...
and
Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly Ziad Khalaf al-Karbouly ( ar, زياد خلف الكربولي; 1970 - died 4 February 2015), a native of Al-Qa'im, was an Islamist former Iraqi officer and the son of an Iraqi tribal sheikh of the Al-Karabla clan of the Dulaim. Arrest and tria ...
. Both had been convicted of terrorist offences. In February 2016 local media reported that a government committee had recommended the execution of 13 offenders, out of 80 investigated cases. 15 people were executed on the morning of 4 March 2017; 10 convicted with terrorism and the remaining 5 with "heinous" murder and rape of minors. Those convicted with terrorism were part of a bomb attack against the Jordanian embassy in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
in 2003 that left dozens killed, an attack in
Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...
in 2006 in which a tourist was killed, a foiled terror plot in
Irbid Irbid ( ar, إِربِد), known in ancient times as Arabella or Arbela (Άρβηλα in Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek), is the capital and largest city of the Irbid Governorate. It also has the second largest metropolitan population in ...
in 2016 that planned to bomb several civilian targets, an attack on intelligence officers in 2016 that left 5 dead and the assassination of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar in 2016. In 2017 there were a total of 120 people on death row, including 12 women. On 4 August 2021 a Jordanian man was hanged in Swaqa prison for burning his Lebanese wife to death, being the last execution in the country as of January 2022.


Capital crimes

Capital punishment is possible amongst others for murder, rape, terrorism, aggravated robbery, drug trafficking, illegal possession and use of weapons, war crimes, treason and espionage.


Legal process

In recent years most verdicts of capital punishment have been handed out by the
State Security Court The State Security Court is a judicial institution in Jordan. It deals with cases regarding state security, but also with drug offences and other types of cases. The defendants in the court can be both military personnel as well as civilians. The C ...
. Cases in which capital punishment is sentenced receive an automatic appeal. Article 93 of the Constitution of Jordan holds that "no death sentence may be carried out unless ratified by the King. Every such sentence shall be submitted to him by the Council of Ministers along with the council’s view on it." Several categories of persons are excluded from being subjected to capital punishment. These are those under the age of 18, pregnant women, the mentally ill and mentally retarded.


References

{{Asia in topic, Capital punishment in
Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
Penal system in Jordan Death in Jordan