Jordanian prosecutors on Tuesday charged three men with terrorism-related offenses over a deadly gun attack last month on a church in the south of the kingdom.
The shooting took place on October 23. Gunmen stormed a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Hammoud village, located in Jordan’s Karak governorate.
The attack left nine people dead and wounded 25 others. Authorities said the suspected gunmen fled the scene immediately after the shooting.
The suspects include two Jordanian brothers and their relative by marriage. Security forces managed to arrest them three days after the assault.
Jordan’s state security prosecutor issued a statement confirming that the public prosecution finished all investigative procedures tied to the terrorist attack at Saint George Church.
The three men face seven formal charges. These include committing terrorist acts resulting in the death of a person and carrying out terrorist acts using weapons and ammunition.
Other charges involve possessing weapons and ammunition for terrorist purposes, conspiring to carry out terrorist acts, and promoting the ideology of a terrorist group.
Under the anti-terrorism laws of Jordan, conviction on the most serious charge of carrying out terrorist acts resulting in death carries the death penalty.
Authorities described the detained suspects as followers of a hard-line Islamist ideology.
The incident shocked the nation, where Christians comprise roughly three percent of the Muslim-majority population.
In response to the bloodshed, Jordan launched retaliatory air strikes against terrorist organisations inside Syria. Amman claimed those operations killed more than 20 jihadists, though the strikes also triggered a brief diplomatic crisis with its northern neighbour.
