Attorney indicts embassy killer, urges trial under int’l law

AMMAN — Attorney General Judge Akram Masaadeh on Thursday announced the end of the investigation in the killings of the two Jordanian citizens Mohammad Jawawdeh and Bashar Kamel Hamarneh, which took place at the Israeli embassy in Amman, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

Masaadeh said that the Public Prosecution indicted the murderer, named Ziv, with both the murder of more than one person in violation of Article 27/3 of the Jordanian Penal Code, and the possession of a firearm without a licence contrary to Articles 3, 4 and 11/D of the Firearms and Ammunition Law No. 54 of 1952 after the investigations clarified that Ziv is the murderer. 

Masaadeh said that "the Public Prosecutor's Office found through the investigation that the murderer enjoy diplomatic and judicial immunity", pointing out that the prosecutor decided that they cannot prosecute him, in accordance with Article 11 of the Jordanian Penal Code.

He added that the immunity of the murderer, according to the Vienna Convention, is purely procedural immunity, and does not exempt him from trials before the courts of his country.

He pointed out that after the investigation, the Public Prosecution submitted the investigation papers to the minister of justice to address the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to send the papers to the concerned judicial authorities of Israel "to prosecute the murderer in accordance with Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and within the limits of the crimes committed".