Capital punishment in Jordan  Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Jordan. The country had a moratorium on capital punishment between 2006 and 2014. 11 executions were performed in 2015, and 15 executions were performed in 2017. The method of execution is hanging, previously shooting was the sole method. Between 2000 and the imposition of a moratorium in 2006 there had been 41 executions, either for murder, terrorism or sexual offences. In 2005 King Abdullah II of Jordan stated that: "in coordination with the European Union, we would like to modify our Penal Code. Jordan could soon become the first country in the Middle East without capital punishment." In 2006 the Jordanian cabinet launched a plan to limit the number of capital offences from sixteen to ten. In 2008 and 2010 Jordan abstained to vote on the United Nations moratorium on the death penalty. In November 2014 the Jordanian cabinet formed a committee to explore whether Jordan should reinstate the application of capital punishment. On 21 December 2014 eleven persons were hanged, all men which were convicted of murder in 2005 and 2006. These were the first executions since June 2006, 122 sentences of capital punishment had been handed out since. Shortly before the executions Interior Minister Hussein Al-Majali had stated that capital punishment might be reinstated due to a major debate on the subject, and with the public believing that a recent rise in crime was caused by non-application of the death penalty. The lifting of the moratorium was criticized by human rights organisations. On 4 February 2015, shortly after discovering Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh had been killed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Jordan executed Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi and Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly. Both had been convicted of terrorist offences. In February 2016 local media reported that a government committee had recommended the execution of 13 offenders, out of 80 investigated cases.  15 executions were carried on dawn of 4 March 2017; 10 convicted with terrorism and the remaining 5 with "heinous" murder and rape of minors. Those convicted with terrorism were part of a bomb attack against the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad in 2003 that left dozens killed, an attack in Amman in 2006 in which a tourist was killed, a foiled terror plot in Irbid in 2016 that planned to bomb several civilian targets, an attack on intelligence officers in 2016 that left 5 dead and the assassination of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar in 2016. Capital punishment is possible amongst others for murder, rape, terrorism, aggravated robbery, drug trafficking, illegal possession and use of weapons, war crimes, treason and espionage.