2018 Dead Sea tragedy: School principal, tourism company owners jailed

AMMAN — The Amman Magistrates Court on Tuesday sentenced the school principal and owners of a tourism company to three years in prison after convicting them of causing deaths by negligence in the 2018 Dead Sea flash flood case.

Twenty-one people, mostly schoolchildren who were on a school trip to the Zarqa-Maeen Valley, died and 35 injured in October of 2018 when flash floods swept the hot springs area near the Dead Sea, following heavy rain.

The Amman Magistrates Court also ordered the owners of three tourism offices to pay JD3,300 in fines, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Presiding Judge Mohammad Tarawneh acquitted the owner of Victoria College School (VCS) over lack of evidence, found three Education Ministry employees not guilty and also exonerated a trip escort of charges. 

The ministers of education and tourism resigned in the aftermath of the tragedy due to public anger.

Following the tragedy, three committees were formed — a Royal committee, a technical committee and a parliamentary panel — to investigate the causes of the incident and offer recommendations to the government to manage such crises.

His Majesty King Abdullah had called for drafting a report that determines precisely what had happened, stressing the need for transparency to identify who should be held accountable.