Three weeks after three suspected Islamic extremists shot dead nine Christians at a church funeral in Jordan, a court on Sunday (Nov. 15) sentenced them to death by hanging, news outlets reported.
The State Security Court found the gunmen, who also wounded 25 others in the Oct. 23 attack at a Greek Orthodox church in Hammoud village, Karak Governorate, guilty of “executing terrorist acts using weapons and ammunition on two counts, possession of weapons and ammunition with terrorist intent, conspiring to commit terrorist acts using weapons, and promoting terrorist group ideology,” according to state news agency Petra.
Jordanian military in a press statement said the “State Security Court issued its ruling, sentencing to death the three criminals who carried out the terrorist attack” at St. George’s Orthodox Church, about 80 kilometers south of Amman.
Two of the assailants were identified as brothers Hazzaa Mohammad and Mishaal Mohammad, and the third, Ahmad Hussein, as their brother-in-law, according to The National News, with authorities describing all three as from the Thneibat clan.
A witness previously told CNN the assault “lasted a long time,” and the gunmen shouted the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar [God is greater]” as they targeted the church courtyard where most of the mourners were standing.
The three extremists confessed in court to the killings, The National News reported, citing Amer Halasah, attorney for the victims’ families. He described the sentences as “the most severe” handed down under a 2006 anti-terrorism law.
State media described the unusually swift trial of four hearings as intended to send the government’s message of intolerance of terrorism, according to The National News.
The court convicted one of the assailants of providing funds to finance terrorist acts, Petra reported.
Also sentenced were two men for selling the weapons used in the church attack; they received to prison terms of six years each. The convicts can appeal within 30 days to Jordan’s Court of Cassation.
Officials in Jordan said on Oct. 27 that, in response to the church attack, the country’s military had killed at least 20 members of the Islamic State in strikes in Syria. Denying that Jordanian authorities had coordinated the strikes with Syria, Syrian officials said that seven people, including three children, a woman and an elderly man, were killed in the strikes.
Security camera footage of the church shooting on social media showed three gunmen firing weapons on the street before heading toward the worship site, according to CNN.
Christians make up 2-3 percent of Jordan’s population, but the town where shooting took place has long been predominantly Christian. A witness told Al-Mamlaka television that there were more than 150 people within and outside the church building at the time of the attack, according to CNN.
The court in Jordan has also charged a man with terrorism over the stabbing to death of Cpl. Jawad Al Salayta and the wounding of another police officer outside the Sri Lankan embassy in Amman on Nov. 5, The National News reported, stating that the killing was widely seen “as a brazen challenge to the security core of the establishment.”
