Jordan hangs 11 after eight-year death penalty freeze
Jordan executed 11 citizens on Sunday, ending an eight-year moratorium on capital punishment, judicial sources said.
The hanged men were among 120 Jordanians convicted of capital crimes in the last 10 years, according to the sources.
Jordan halted executions in 2006, but a recent rise in violent crime has resulted in calls to reimpose capital punishment.
"With these executions, Jordan loses its standing as a rare progressive voice on the death penalty in the region," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at the US-based Human Rights Watch. "Reviving this inherently cruel form of punishment is another way Jordan is backsliding on human rights."
