Jordan sentences six to death for maiming teen

AMMAN: Jordan's state security court sentenced six men to death Wednesday after convicting them of maiming a 16-year-old boy in a case that triggered public outrage, a court official said.

The victim has since regained the use of one eye after receiving specialist treatment at Amman's King Hussein Hospital ordered by King Abdullah II but he lost both hands to his assailants' vendetta against his father.

A total of 17 people were implicated in the teenager's abduction from the city of Zarqa northeast of the capital last October.

The gang wanted to make the boy suffer to punish his father, who had been detained on suspicion of killing the brother of four of them following an argument about money.

The brutality of the attack shocked the kingdom. Queen Rania called it an "unspeakable atrocity in all respects".

The king called for the culprits to be punished to the full extent of the law and the case was reclassified as an "act of terrorism" and transferred to the state security court.

Among the other defendants, one was sentenced to 15 years jail for complicity, one to 10 years for kidnapping and two to one year. Seven were acquitted.

Jordan has not carried out any executions since March 2017 although it has continued to hand down death sentences.

In 2017, Jordan hanged 15 convicts, 10 of them for terrorism offences.