Jordan hangs 11 people after lifting eight-year ban on executions

The 11 people hanged for murder were the first to be executed in eight years

King Abdullah II of Jordan, the country that hanged 11 people on Sunday after the ban on executions was lifted (GETTY IMAGES)

The kingdom of Jordan has revealed it has hanged 11 people on Sunday after the country’s ban on convictions was lifted.

Jordan’s Interior Ministry said the 11 men, who were convicted of murder, were the first people to be executed in eight years.

The official Petra news agency quoted Zaid al-Zuabi, Jordan’s Interior Ministry spokesman, as saying that the men were executed “at dawn” on Sunday at a penitentiary in the country’s south.

The men, who were not identified beyond their nationality as Jordanians, had all been convicted of murder between 2005 and 2006. The details of their crimes were not released, but al-Zuabi stated that all legal channels for appeal had been exhausted for the men.

Jordan stopped carrying out the death penalty in 2006, but recently the debate over capital punishment has resurfaced, with people arguing the rise in crime had been down to the lack of the death penalty.

Since then 122 people have been sentenced to death.

Additional reporting by AP