The execution of the death penalty decided by the State Security Court on Sunday against 3 terrorists who targeted worshippers in a church in southern Jordan, resulting in 9 deaths and more than 40 injuries, is awaiting ratification by the Supreme Court of Cassation.
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Awaiting a definitive answer
The ruling acquires the status of a final judgment, and the Court of Cassation considers the form and not the content of the court's decision before issuing its legal decision so that the ruling acquires the status of a final judgment.
The State Security Court said in its decision that the criminals “did not give any weight to neighborliness or chivalry, nor did they care about their homeland or give any weight to its interest, security and stability, not caring about the pain of its people or their hopes, taking false narratives and flimsy arguments as a cover for their crimes in a scene in which blood was taken as a path and terrorism as a means.”
The lawyer for the victims’ families, Amer Halsa, confirmed that the sentences were commensurate with the charges against the defendants, and that the court applied the law objectively and impartially, and did not take into account any mitigating circumstances for the three main defendants.
He added in media statements that the sentencing session proceeded calmly and smoothly, in the presence of a number of the martyrs’ relatives who demanded justice, noting that the fourth and fifth defendants attended the session in person, while the three main defendants participated via video call technology.
While politicians and citizens are demanding that the accused be executed in a public square, government circles expect the execution decision to receive royal approval after the final verdict, and to be implemented immediately, in a message that affirms the “prestige of the state” in the face of terrorist operations.
The decision to execute them was made after three defendants from one family were convicted of six crimes at once, each punishable by death, the most important of which were “carrying out terrorist acts that resulted in the death of a human being” (repeated nine times), using weapons and ammunition (repeated twice), in addition to forming a terrorist organization, possessing and using weapons and ammunition, terrorist conspiracy, and forming a terrorist gang.
The same decision included a five-year prison sentence for two people, who the prosecution said had provided a weapon to the perpetrators of the crime, with the punishment here intended to deter any attempts to sell weapons that could be used in terrorism.
The decision brings to a close a case that has sparked widespread public outrage and a series of exceptional and unprecedented security and preventative measures.
A series of raids and extensive precautionary arrests are taking place in several areas, including the city of Al-Rusaifa, the Al-Baqa’a camp, and the cities of Irbid and Zarqa, in conjunction with a comprehensive security monitoring operation against any activity related to what the Minister of Legal Affairs, Nawaf Al-Qudah, called “intellectual crimes”.
These raids, searches, and arrests, which are carried out silently away from the media, target activists of the Takfiri movement, who could become a danger to society and the stability of civil peace.
According to a security source who the arrests included dozens of “suspects” who had previously been convicted of either planning terrorist acts, issuing statements declaring the state to be infidels, or even sympathizing with terrorism and the “Islamic State” organization.
As part of the National Security Council’s commitment to royal directives entitled “Comprehensive Security Assessment”, the security system is moving towards establishing a special operations room to monitor and track takfiri activities in a manner that includes even some suspected members of Salafist and jihadist organizations, including in the cities of Karak and Salt, south and west of the capital.
Meanwhile, procedural precautions include documenting and dealing with numerous cases of extremism, and monitoring those whom the competent authorities consider to be hardliners, extremists, or belonging to the Takfiri movement, or suspected of accepting the idea of “guidance from abroad.” This is paralleled by monitoring opinions and comments that violate the law and call for extremism or incite hatred.
Amendments to laws
In addition, Parliament is expected to hold extensive legislative discussions within a week regarding legal amendments related to the “prevention of terrorism” file, specifically with unprecedented increases in penalties and a system of texts thatmonitors, both in terms of security and electronically, perpetrators of intellectual crimes, not just terrorist ones.
On the legislative side, there are also deliberations on laws to curb what the authorities call a culture of hatred.
The discussions will touch on controversial issues, such as school curricula, mosques, schools and Quran memorization centers, as official statements, which do not appear to be coordinated and systematic, have drawn attention to this trend.
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