Jordan executed two Islamist militants on Saturday who were convicted of killing a US diplomat in Amman, in a rare move to implement a death sentence against security detainees.
Officials told Reuters prison authorities in Swaqa hanged Libyan Salem bin Suweid and Jordanian Yasser Freihat at dawn, carrying out a court sentence passed in 2004 for murdering US diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman in October 2002.
"The death sentence by hanging against the two criminals, Salem Saad Salem bin Suweid and Jordanian national Yasser Fathi Ibrahim Freihat, was implemented at dawn after they were convicted of the terrorist act that led to the death of a diplomat working in Amman," said a security official.
Death sentences in Jordan are rarely implemented for political detainees.
Earlier this month rioting broke out in three major Jordanian prisons after security forces went into Swaqa to transfer the two high-profile Islamist prisoners on death row for killing Foley. The prison clashes, which involved 150 inmates, were the most serious in Jordan in recent years.
Jordan, which has been facing growing Islamist activism, denies there are systematic violations of prisoners rights in its jails.
Dozens of inmates are being held on suspicion of plotting attacks against Israelis, Americans and Westerners.
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