Jordan jails nine in case linked to Muslim Brotherhood

The prison terms range from three to 15 years. The court had previously sentenced four other people in the case to 20-year jail terms for "possession of explosives, weapons and ammunition".

In April, the kingdom's intelligence service announced it had arrested 16 suspects and "foiled plans aimed at targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotaging within Jordan".

Jordan then announced it was banning the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement, accusing it of manufacturing and stockpiling weapons and planning to destabilise the kingdom.

On Wednesday, the court sentenced two people to 15 years of hard labour and a third person to seven-and-a-half years of prison for making missiles, according to Petra.

Four other people were sentenced to three years and four months of hard labour for having "carried out acts likely to disturb public order and endanger the security and stability of the country".

Two others were sentenced to three years and four months of prison for similar offences.

Petra did not specify whether any of the nine individuals were Muslim Brotherhood members.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Jordan branch was founded in 1945, and became the country's largest Islamist movement.

In 2020, Jordan's top court ruled to dissolve it, finding its licence had not been renewed under a 2014 law -- which the Brotherhood rejected.

Despite the ruling, it continued to operate, with authorities turning a blind eye to its activities, until the April ban.

The Brotherhood's political wing, the Islamic Action Front, is Jordan's main opposition party and the largest in parliament, having won 31 out of 138 seats in elections in 2024.