Jordan Hangs 11 after Lifting Execution Ban
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Jordan executed 11 men convicted of murder by hanging, the interior ministry said, as it ended an informal eight-year moratorium on the death penalty.
"Eleven criminals convicted in different cases of murder were executed at dawn," the official Petra news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Sunday.
Authorities said the men were all Jordanians convicted on murder charges in 2005 and 2006.
Jordan's last previous executions were in June 2006 and 122 people have since been sentenced to death.
Interior Minister Hussein Majali suggested recently that the moratorium might end, saying there was a "major debate" in Jordan on the death penalty and that "the public believes that the rise in crime has been the result of the non-application" of capital punishment, Al Jazeera reported.
A number of countries in the Middle East continue to impose the death penalty for serious crimes, including Jordan's neighbor Saudi Arabia which has executed 83 people so far this year.
