The key facts

  • The defendant faces two counts of terrorist acts, one of which led to the death of Corporal Jawad Al-Salayta
  • Suspect Muhanad Al-Hmouri was sentenced in 2022 to nine years for a plan to attack a security facility in Irbid and ties to ISIS, and was released days before the attack
  • The attack followed a church shooting on 23 October that killed nine people, mostly from the Christian Halasa clan

Terrorism charges after a policeman's death

Jordan's judiciary has charged a man suspected of killing a policeman and wounding another outside the Sri Lankan embassy in Amman with terrorism. According to The National, the victims of the attack, which took place in a busy district of the capital, were Corporal Jawad Al-Salayta, who died at the scene, and Captain Firas Al-Ananzeh, who was wounded as he tried to subdue the attacker. According to the outlet, the suspect reportedly tried to wrest the corporal's rifle from him; the captain had arrived at the scene shortly before.

Who the suspect is

The State Security Court prosecutor's office, according to reports on national television, has completed all investigative procedures in the 'terrorist act against the ranks of public security in Amman'. The suspect was interrogated and charged on two counts of 'committing terrorist acts', one of which 'resulted in the death' of the policeman. State-aligned media named the suspect as Muhanad Al-Hmouri, a Jordanian national born in 1994. In 2022 he was sentenced to nine years in prison for involvement in a plan to attack a security facility in the northern province of Irbid and for ties to ISIS. The outlet notes that he was released from prison just days before the deadly attack.

Context: the church attack and the country's reaction

The attack in Amman came after an attack on a church in central Jordan on 23 October, in which nine people were killed — mostly members of the influential Christian Halasa clan. Authorities classified it as terrorism and arrested three suspects in the shooting. Both incidents shocked a country where violence against the Christian community is rare; at the same time, as The National writes, militants have repeatedly targeted security personnel over the past decade, but the corporal's death was seen as a brazen challenge to the state's security core. On Sunday, the trial began of five men suspected of involvement in the attack near the Khoud church: three have been charged with terrorism, while two others, according to the state-owned Jordan Times newspaper, sold them the weapon used in the attack.