Jordan charges three over deadly church attack

Jordanian prosecutors charged three men with terrorism-related offences over a deadly gun attack on a Greek Orthodox church in the south of the country last month.

Gunmen killed nine people and wounded 25 others on October 23 when they stormed a funeral at Saint George Church in Hammoud village, in Karak governorate.

Authorities said the suspected gunmen, two Jordanian brothers and their relative by marriage, fled after the attack and were arrested three days later.

Jordan's state security prosecutor said the public prosecution had completed investigative procedures related to the attack. The seven charges include committing terrorist acts resulting in death, carrying out terrorist acts using weapons and ammunition, possessing weapons and ammunition for terrorist purposes, conspiring to carry out terrorist acts and promoting the ideology of a terrorist group.

Under Jordan's anti-terrorism law, a conviction on the most serious charge, carrying out terrorist acts resulting in death, is punishable by death.

Authorities have described the suspects as followers of a hardline Islamist ideology. Christians make up around three percent of Jordan's Muslim-majority population.

Jordan later said it launched deadly strikes on terrorist organisations in Syria, claiming to have killed more than 20 jihadists. The strikes caused a brief diplomatic crisis with Syria.