Jordanian authorities hanged six men at dawn on Sunday, June 21, 2026, ending a pause in executions that had run since 2017, Human Rights Watch said. All six cases involved the killings of police or security officers. Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani, the communications minister, said more than 100 others on death row will follow.
All six men were convicted by Jordan’s State Security Court, a military institution staffed by both military and civilian judges. The rights group’s full account of the six executions was released on June 23, 2026. Two were linked to the 2018 “Salt Cell” bombing that killed six security personnel near Amman. One was tied to a 2022 ambush in Maan that killed a senior police officer; three were tried for killings of officers during anti-narcotics operations. The rights group said Jordan should “renew its moratorium on the death penalty.”
The Six Who Were Hanged at Dawn
Jordanian authorities carried out the executions at dawn on Sunday, June 21, after all constitutional and legal procedures had been completed, government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said. al-Momani said the sentences received final judicial confirmation through the Court of Cassation, Cabinet endorsement, and royal decree. The men had spent years on death row after convictions in Jordan’s State Security Court.
Two of the men, Mahmoud Nayef Musa and Anwar Adel Saleh, were convicted in what authorities call the Salt Cell case, named for the town of al-Salt west of Amman. The government said they were part of a cell that detonated a bomb near a joint security patrol close to an annual festival in the town of Fuheis on August 10, 2018. The blast killed two members of the gendarmerie forces and wounded six others. The next day’s follow-up operations in al-Salt killed four more security personnel.
A third man, Ibrahim Mansour, was executed for his role in a December 2022 ambush on a police patrol in the southern town of Maan. The ambush killed Colonel Abdulrazzaq al-Dalabeeh, then-deputy director of the Maan Police Directorate. The remaining three men executed were also tried before the State Security Court. al-Momani said those cases involved the killing of law enforcement officers during anti-narcotics operations. The three drug cases, separate reporting found, involved killings that took place between 2014 and 2018.
A Military Court for Murder and Meth
All six men were tried in Jordan’s State Security Court, a military institution staffed by both military and civilian judges. Its jurisdiction covers terrorism, treason, and espionage, alongside drug offenses. The court’s reach into drug cases puts ordinary criminal matters under the same military-style tribunal as terrorism prosecutions.
Human Rights Watch opposes the creation and use of special courts to try national security crimes, arguing such courts are frequently authorized by law to conduct trials in ways that restrict defendants’ rights beyond what international human rights law permits. Regular criminal courts, the organization added, have proven effective at prosecuting terrorism offenses in line with international due process standards.
All six cases ran through the State Security Court, including the 2018 Salt Cell bombing, the 2022 Maan ambush, and the anti-narcotics killings. The 2014 hangings, by contrast, ran through the Serious Crimes Court, the predecessor venue for capital murder cases. The March 2017 round included ten terrorism-related convictions from the State Security Court. Drug offenses, alongside terrorism, treason, and espionage, sit inside the State Security Court’s jurisdiction.
Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, called the hangings a sharp return to a practice Jordan has used only sporadically since reinstating capital punishment 12 years ago. He urged Jordan “to lead the region by example on rights and protection and renew its moratorium on the death penalty.” The State Security Court, his organization argued, should be stripped of its jurisdiction over civilians as a step toward abolishing it.
How Jordan Paused, Then Started Again
Jordan reinstated capital punishment in December 2014, ending an eight-year unofficial moratorium on executions. The first post-moratorium hangings were 11 men, all convicted of murder at the Serious Crimes Court. They were executed at Suwaqa prison, 70 kilometers south of Amman, the rights group’s 2014 statement on the resumption noted. A second round came in March 2017, when authorities executed 15 men, ten of them convicted on terrorism-related charges by the State Security Court.
- December 21, 2014: 11 men hanged for murder convictions at Suwaqa prison.
- March 2017: 15 men executed, 10 by State Security Court on terrorism charges.
- June 21, 2026: 6 men hanged, first executions since 2017.
The 2014 resumption ended a pause that had begun after Jordan’s last executions in mid-2006. Sarah Leah Whitson, then the rights organization’s Middle East director, said at the time that “with these executions, Jordan loses its standing as a rare progressive voice on the death penalty in the region.” The 2017 round drew less international notice but widened the court’s role in death sentences. From 2017 until the dawn hangings on June 21, no executions were carried out. Human Rights Watch described the June 2026 resumption as “a sharp return to a practice Jordan has used only sporadically since reinstating capital punishment 12 years ago.”
The Backlog That Comes Next
The government announcement went further than the six hangings. Spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said more than 100 people remain on death row in Jordan. He added that executions would proceed “one by one.” The government has not elaborated on why the sentences were carried out after a nine-year pause.
Jordan’s National Center for Human Rights, the country’s official human rights institution, counts those on death row each year. The center’s 2025 annual report shows the size of the backlog. New death sentences issued by the State Security Court have been zero since 2022, the center said.
| Year | Under death sentence | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 284 | 264 | 20 |
| 2024 | 276 | 254 | 22 |
New death sentences issued by the Grand Criminal Court fell from 25 in 2023 to 13 in 2024, the center said. The State Security Court, by contrast, issued no new death sentences from 2022 through 2024. The pipeline being executed now draws on older convictions in the system, the data suggest. A 2023 Jordan Times report noted that the Salt Cell members hanged on Sunday had been sentenced to death on February 22, 2023.
Why Rights Groups Focus on the Court
Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances, a stance that frames its criticism of the June 21 hangings. Coogle opened his statement by acknowledging the families of the security personnel killed. He then turned to the punishment itself.
No one disputes that the police and security forces killed in these attacks deserved justice and their families deserved accountability, but the death penalty is an inherently cruel and irreversible punishment.
The statement, attributed to Coogle and released by Human Rights Watch on June 23, 2026, made the case broader than the punishment itself. The rights organization opposes the creation and use of special courts to try national security crimes. Such courts, it argued, are frequently authorized by law to conduct trials in ways that restrict defendants’ rights beyond what international human rights law permits. Regular criminal courts, the organization said, have proven effective at handling terrorism cases while meeting due process standards. Jordan should restrict its security court’s jurisdiction over civilians as a step toward abolishing the court, it added.
The “One by One” Pipeline
Spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said more than 100 people remain on death row in Jordan. He added that executions would proceed “one by one.” He said the hangings on June 21, 2026, will be followed by more under the same plan. The government has not elaborated on why the sentences were carried out after a nine-year pause.
The State Security Court issued no new death sentences between 2022 and 2024, according to the National Center for Human Rights’ 2025 report. The pipeline being executed now draws on older convictions, the data suggest. The two men hanged for the 2018 bombing were sentenced in February 2023, a 2023 Jordan Times report noted. Most countries in the world have abolished the practice, the rights organization noted. The court’s drug-offense jurisdiction treats those killings as capital cases alongside terrorism.
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly called on countries to establish a moratorium on the death penalty, urging progressive restriction of capital offenses with the view toward eventual abolition. The statement urged Jordan “to lead the region by example on rights and protection and renew its moratorium on the death penalty.” The June 23 statement from Human Rights Watch cited that 2012 resolution as part of its argument.
