AMMAN, March 11: Jordan executed two Muslim extremists 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.

A Jordanian security source said anti-riot police and prison authorities were put on high alert in the prisons in anticipation of any unrest by angry inmates. Prisoners had threatened to riot if the two inmates were executed.

Muslim extremists in contact with security detainees said inmates were threatening to stage “unspecified action” to show their anger against the hanging of the two militants.

This month’s rioting underscored the militants’ high-level of coordination. Security sources said the inmates used smuggled mobile phones to organise the rioting between the three jails.

The three prisons are among eight jails holding more than 6,000 common and political prisoners.

Jordan, which has been facing growing Muslim extremism and militancy, 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. They were part of militant cells uncovered in the past few years.

Security officials in Jordan, a staunch US ally, say the rise in militancy is tied to growing anti-American sentiment after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.—Reuters