Jordan executed six death-row inmates by hanging at dawn on Sunday, ending a nearly nine-year pause in capital punishment, as Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan declared the government would seek legal amendments to apply the death penalty more widely to senior drug smugglers and traffickers. The move marks the kingdom’s first executions since March 2017 and signals a hardening of penal policy in response to what officials describe as persistent terrorist and criminal threats to state security.

The executed men included Mahmoud Nayef Musa and Anas Anwar Adel Saleh, convicted for forming a 2018 terrorist cell in the city of Salt that led to the deaths of six security officers during a raid. Ibrahim Mansour Mohammed was hanged for the 2022 killing of a senior police colonel during protests over fuel prices in Maan governorate. Three additional men — Hamza Mahmoud Mansour, Khaled Assaf Fayez and Ihab Maher Kamal — were executed for drug-related crimes, each convicted of firing on security forces during anti-narcotics raids between 2014 and 2018, resulting in three officer fatalities. Government spokesman Mohammad Momani confirmed that more than 100 other inmates remain on death row and that executions would continue “one by one.”

Viewed from Amman, the executions are officially presented as justice for fallen security personnel and a deterrence message. “The implementation of the death penalty today is a clear and continuous message to anyone who dares to attack members of the Jordanian armed forces and security agencies,” Hassan said in a televised cabinet meeting. He added that the government would work with both houses of parliament to expand capital punishment to cover “major drug traders and smugglers working with foreign gangs,” a reference to cross-border trafficking networks that have grown in recent years, especially along the Syrian frontier. Jordanian authorities have increasingly portrayed drug smuggling as a national security threat linked to Iran-backed militias, and the expanded penalty is seen by regional analysts as a response to the escalation in armed confrontations during anti-narcotics operations.

Jordan’s application of the death penalty has historically been limited; the 2017 executions of 15 people — 10 for terrorism, five for murder — were the largest batch since 2006. According to the National Centre for Human Rights, no new death sentences were handed down by the State Security Court from 2022 to 2024, underscoring the exceptional nature of Sunday’s step. The proposed legislative overhaul, if adopted, would extend capital punishment beyond its current remit, a move that regional analysts say reflects mounting anxiety over the drug trade’s impact on state institutions. The justice ministry is expected to present draft amendments in the coming weeks, with parliamentary debate to follow.