One man sentenced to death over killing of two police officers in Irbid

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday handed one man the death penalty and sentenced two others to prison terms ranging from life to 15 years after convicting them of shooting and killing two police officers in Irbid last December.

The SSC, presided over by Col. Raed Ezmigna, handed the main defendant in the case the death penalty for carrying on the assault on a Public Security Department (PSD) patrol, during which Captain Jamal Darawsheh and Corporal Usama Jarawreh were killed, a senior judicial source said.

The second defendant in the case was handed life in prison for orchestrating the attack and for transporting the weapon used in the incident, while the third defendant received 15 years in prison for providing the weapon while knowing it was going to be used against police officers, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The three defendants were charged with carrying out terrorist acts by using automatic rifles that led to the killing of one person, and carrying out terrorist acts using automatic rifles that caused damage to a vehicle, according to the charge sheet. 

Darawsheh and Jarawreh were in their patrol vehicle near the Samma intersection to the west of Irbid, some 80km north of Amman, when the suspects reportedly fired at their vehicle.

Jarawreh, who was driving the vehicle, was injured and lost control of the car, which veered off and toppled down the road.

According to the SSC charge sheet, one of the defendants was the brother of a man from the village of Samma who was killed in a shootout with police in early October last year when police were trying to arrest him for alleged vandalism of an Islamic cemetery in the northern town.

The other two men were a friend and a cousin of the prime suspect, the charge sheet added.