Jordanian Sentenced to Death for 2019 Tourist Stabbings
AMMAN (Dispatches) – Jordan’s state security court sentenced a man to death on Tuesday for the 2019 stabbing of eight people, four of them foreign tourists, at one of the kingdom’s ancient sites.
The victims, who included one Swiss and three Mexican tourists, all survived the November 2019 knife attack in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Jerash, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital Amman.
Mustafa Abu Ruwais, 24, was sentenced to "death by hanging for the terrorist knife attack on tourists,” the court said.
There is no right of appeal against the decisions of Jordan’s state security court.
Abu Ruwais was at the time of the attack a resident of the Souf camp in Jerash.
He was arrested immediately afterwards and charged with terrorism offences in January last year.
The charge sheet alleged that Abu Ruwais "follows the ideology of the Daesh terrorist gang”, and has been "in contact with one of the members of this organization” who gave the green light for the attack.
But there was never any formal claim of responsibility for the attack.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the court also found two other defendants guilty, sentencing one to life imprisonment and the other to seven years for complicity.
The Jordanian victims included a tour guide and a security officer who attempted to intervene.
It was not the first time a Jordanian tourist attraction had been attacked.
In December 2016, in Karak, home to one of the region’s biggest Crusader castles, 10 people -- seven police, two Jordanian civilians and a Canadian tourist -- were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded.
That attack was claimed by Daesh, and 10 people were later convicted of carrying out the assault, two of them sentenced to death.
Tourism is a key lifeline for Jordan, a country lacking in natural resources and reliant on foreign aid.
The victims, who included one Swiss and three Mexican tourists, all survived the November 2019 knife attack in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Jerash, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital Amman.
Mustafa Abu Ruwais, 24, was sentenced to "death by hanging for the terrorist knife attack on tourists,” the court said.
There is no right of appeal against the decisions of Jordan’s state security court.
Abu Ruwais was at the time of the attack a resident of the Souf camp in Jerash.
He was arrested immediately afterwards and charged with terrorism offences in January last year.
The charge sheet alleged that Abu Ruwais "follows the ideology of the Daesh terrorist gang”, and has been "in contact with one of the members of this organization” who gave the green light for the attack.
But there was never any formal claim of responsibility for the attack.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the court also found two other defendants guilty, sentencing one to life imprisonment and the other to seven years for complicity.
The Jordanian victims included a tour guide and a security officer who attempted to intervene.
It was not the first time a Jordanian tourist attraction had been attacked.
In December 2016, in Karak, home to one of the region’s biggest Crusader castles, 10 people -- seven police, two Jordanian civilians and a Canadian tourist -- were killed in an attack that also left 30 wounded.
That attack was claimed by Daesh, and 10 people were later convicted of carrying out the assault, two of them sentenced to death.
Tourism is a key lifeline for Jordan, a country lacking in natural resources and reliant on foreign aid.