Jordan ends eight-year stay on executions, hangs eleven

Jordan yesterday ended a moratorium on executions that had stood since 2006, executing eleven men.

The Interior Ministry made the announcement via official news agency Petra. The ministry did not identify the men, but said all had been convicted of murder in either 2005 or 2006. All were Jordanian citizens and had exhausted all appeals, according to the ministry. None, it said, were convicted of politically motivated murder.

The men were executed at a prison in the south early in the morning. All were hung. The executions were spurred by lawmakers requesting action to curb rising crime rates. Agence France-Presse quoted a prison-system source as saying most were in their 40s. "Some of the prisoners asked to have their final words passed on their families, others asked only to smoke a cigarette," said the source.

Since the stay began in 2006, 122 convicts have been added to death row, including militants. Interior Minister Hussein al-Majali said previously executions could resume following "major debate", claiming "the public believes that the rise in crime has been the result of the non-application" of death sentences.