The bells of St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hamoud in Jordan’s southern Karak governorate tolled Sunday, moments after three men convicted of attacking the church on Oct. 23 were sentenced to death. The attack left nine people dead and dozens injured.
Security forces deployed outside the State Security Court, a military court in Amman, as the defendants were sentenced. Several family members of the victims attended the hearing.
“When I heard the verdict, I felt as though my brother had been killed today,” Maysoun Barqan said through tears. “My heart aches.”
Barqan spoke to MBN about her brother, Assem Barqan, a university professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. He was attending a condolence gathering when he was shot twice in the attack.
“The entire community stood by us, and we appreciate the swift response and trial. But what happened could have been prevented,” Barqan said.
The verdict can be appealed before the Court of Cassation. The government is also moving to toughen penalties under its counterterrorism law.
‘No Room for Leniency’
The three men were convicted on at least six charges, including nine counts of carrying out terrorist acts resulting in death, using and possessing weapons with the intent to employ them in terrorist acts, and promoting the ideology of a terrorist group.
“The seriousness of these acts and the grave consequences they have produced require the application of the law in a manner commensurate with the gravity and danger of the crime,” the court said in its verdict. “The court therefore concludes that there is no room for leniency and no justification for mercy.”
Two other men were sentenced to six years in prison for selling weapons to the attackers, Amer Halsa, a lawyer representing the victims’ families, told reporters outside the court.
Saud al-Sharafat, director of the Shorufat Center for Globalization and Terrorism Studies and Research, told MBN that the authorities sent “a message that they will not tolerate extremist crimes.”
Concerns About Growing Extremism
The verdict comes amid concerns about extremist violence in Jordan. Less than two weeks after the church attack, a police officer was killed in Amman in what authorities described as an act of terrorism.
Following the church attack, Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya called for a broader effort to counter takfiri ideology — which declares other Muslims unbelievers to justify violence — through schools, universities, mosques and social media.
The government, he said, would show no tolerance toward anyone, “whether a teacher or an imam, who spreads hatred against others or promotes extremist ideas.”
But al-Sharafat questioned the effectiveness of Jordan’s existing counterextremism programs. The problem of extremism in Jordan “has grown in recent years,” he said, “with takfiri ideology spreading noticeably on social media without any clear strategy to counter it, while those who publicly criticize this extremist ideology are sometimes punished.”
He also said that both the mastermind of the church attack and the police officer’s killer had previously been imprisoned on extremism-related charges, raising questions about the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs.
Lawmaker Dina al-Bashir called for closer monitoring of people previously convicted of extremism-related offenses and specialized programs in prisons.
“There must be a greater focus on rehabilitation programs within correctional institutions, so that prisons do not merely serve to enforce punishment, but also provide specialized programs supervised by qualified professionals in the fields of ideology, sociology and psychology, alongside genuine assessments of how successful these programs are,” she said.
Jordan’s government is also proposing tougher terrorism laws, including raising the minimum prison sentence from five to 10 years, or to 15 years in some cases. The death penalty would remain the maximum punishment.
The amendments would also double penalties for assisting or inciting terrorist crimes and increase penalties for hate speech.
