Three sentenced to death in ‘Salt Terrorist Cell’ trial

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced three members of a terror cell to death for a series of attacks that occurred in Salt in 2018.

The Salt attacks resulted in the deaths of several Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army members and security agency personnel.

Eight other individuals involved in the case were sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The court acquitted three individuals previously charged for their involvement in the same case.

All verdicts in the case are subject to appeal.

The defendants were charged with multiple offences, including using, possessing and manufacturing explosives and weapons, and conducting terrorist attacks which resulted in human casualties and the destruction of property. 

Defendants were also charged with promoting the ideology of the Daesh terrorist group.

According to the indictment, the defendants targeted buses carrying members of the armed forces and security agencies, security patrols, an intelligence agency building in Salt, and governorate buildings in the terrorist operations. 

The case, known as the "Salt Terrorist Cell", emerged after an explosion occurred near a joint patrol of public security and gendarmerie forces on August 10, 2018, near the Fuheis Festival, 19 kilometres west of Amman. 

The blast killed two gendarmes and injured six members of the patrol.

On August 11, 2018, four security personnel were killed during an operation in Salt's Naqab Al Dabour region, 27 kilometres west of Amman. 

The security personnel were part of a joint force conducting the operation to arrest suspects believed to be involved in the Fuheis bombing. Five suspects were arrested, and three others were killed.

On August 12, 2018, the Jordanian government announced that the bodies of three terrorists were recovered from the rubble of a collapsed building in the Naqab Al Dabour region.