The Crime of Terrorism under Jordanian Law: Concept, Elements and Penalties
One of the things that most confuses the family of an accused person in terrorism files is when their relative is charged with a "terrorist act" for something that does not look like violence to them at all: a money transfer, a threat, an agreement that was never carried out, or possession of materials that were never used. The reason is that Article 147(1) of the Jordanian Penal Code No. 16 of 1960 and its amendments did not define terrorism by its means or by the motives of its perpetrator, but by the nature of the conduct, the effect it is capable of producing and the aim toward which it was directed; Articles 148 and 149 and the Prevention of Terrorism Law No. 55 of 2006 and its amendments then widened the circle of criminalized forms further. Because this legal structure places the entire debate on the specific intent and on the capacity of the act to produce the effect, not on whether the result occurred, the defense in these files stands on entirely different ground from that of the ordinary criminal file, and only a lawyer who has practiced this type of case can manage it well.
1. The Definition of Terrorism in Article 147(1)
The Jordanian legislature defined terrorism in Article 147(1) of the Penal Code as: "Every intentional act, or threat of it, or omission of it, whatever its motives, purposes or means, committed in execution of an individual or collective criminal project that is capable of endangering the safety and security of society or stirring up sedition, if that is capable of disturbing public order, spreading terror among people, frightening them or endangering their lives, causing damage to the environment, public facilities and property, private property, international facilities or diplomatic missions, or occupying or seizing any of them, or endangering national or economic resources, or compelling a legitimate authority or an international or regional organization to perform or refrain from any act, or obstructing the application of the Constitution, the laws or the regulations."
It follows from the text that the legislature adopted a broad concept: it did not confine terrorism to a particular means or a specific aim, but linked it to the nature of the conduct and to the results or effects it is capable of producing, while disregarding the perpetrator's motives and purposes. The aim of this approach is to encompass new and evolving forms of terrorist activity, particularly with the development of technical and communication means and changing methods of committing crimes, so that dangerous acts do not escape criminalization merely because they were not listed in detail and exhaustively in the text.
Here the first practical problem for the accused arises: the breadth of the text means that excluding the terrorist description from an act is not achieved by saying the act was not violent or that the motive was legitimate, because the text expressly disregarded the motive. Determining whether the facts of a particular file fall within Article 147(1) or outside it is itself a legal point that merits early consultation, before the description becomes fixed in the indictment.
2. The Material Element and Its Forms
The material element of the crime of terrorism consists of the criminal conduct and the effect required by law, together with the link that connects the conduct to the terrorist aim.
As to conduct, the text of Article 147(1) makes clear that it may consist of performing a positive act, refraining from performing an act, or threatening to commit the act. The legislature did not limit terrorist conduct to violent physical acts, but widened its scope to include other forms whenever the legal conditions are met. Threats are among the most prominent of these forms, since terrorist activity may be accomplished by spreading fear and terror among individuals or society without requiring an actual physical attack on the victim, whether the threat is of killing, kidnapping, assault or otherwise.
As to effect, the legislature did not require in all forms that the material result actually occur; in some it was satisfied that the conduct be capable of, or suitable for, endangering the safety and security of society, stirring up sedition, disturbing public order or spreading terror among people. What matters in these forms is not whether harm occurred, but the extent to which the conduct was capable of producing the danger or effect the legislature had in mind. Among the most prominent effects the text lists:
| The effect the text had in mind | Its legal content |
|---|---|
| Spreading terror among people and frightening them | The act must be capable of arousing fear, panic and psychological disturbance, so that its effect extends beyond the targeted person to a wider social circle; this is the psychological effect that distinguishes terrorist activity from direct material harm |
| Endangering people's lives and security | It is enough that the conduct be capable of this without requiring that the attack actually occur, assessed by an objective standard based on the nature of the act, the surrounding circumstances and its capacity to create danger |
| Causing damage to the environment | Covers the surroundings in which people and living beings live, with their elements of air, water and land, whenever the conduct leads or is capable of leading to serious damage |
| Damaging public or private facilities and property | Covers movable and immovable property, and includes attacks on public facilities that serve society such as roads, bridges and installations, given the disruption of public interests that results from targeting them |
| Damaging international facilities and diplomatic missions | Protection extends to the premises of international organizations, diplomatic missions, embassies, consulates and offices belonging to foreign states |
| Occupying or seizing places | Not limited to places owned by nationals, but extends, depending on the nature of the place and the act, to property and places under legal protection |
| Endangering national or economic resources | It is enough that the conduct be capable of endangering them; resources include sources of wealth, energy, water and all vital installations |
| Compelling a legitimate authority or an international or regional organization | The core of the criminalization is using the activity as a means of pressure on an official or international body in order to influence its will or decisions |
| Obstructing the application of the Constitution, the laws or the regulations | Accomplished by acts that prevent one of the authorities from exercising its powers or prevent legal rulings and rules from being applied in the normal way |
Added to the above is an essential condition: that the act be committed in execution of an individual or collective criminal project. The import of this condition is that terrorist activity is not an incidental act separate from a criminal aim, but comes within the framework of a project or plan, whether prepared by one person or by a group.
Practical note: The existence of the criminal project and the capacity of the act to produce the effect are two factual questions inferred from the circumstances of the file, and they are among the matters the defense most often contests before the trial court. Here the lawyer examines the sequence of the facts and their context and whether they actually support that inference. Do not make any statement about the context of the act or about your relationship with other persons before presenting the papers to a specialist lawyer, because many early statements are later used to prove the criminal project itself.
3. The Mental Element and Specific Intent
The crime of terrorism requires criminal intent, meaning that the offender knows the nature of their conduct, is aware of what may result from it, and their will is directed toward committing the criminalized activity. In addition, depending on the legal form, it requires a specific intent consisting of achieving one of the aims set by law, including disturbing public order, endangering the safety and security of society, or spreading terror among people and frightening them.
A highly important consequence follows from this: the mere use of violence or threats is not in itself enough to consider an act terrorist unless the remaining elements are present. Crimes of violence, threats or assault may occur without constituting a terrorist crime, whenever the aim or the circumstances that bring them within the scope of the special criminalization of terrorism are absent. This difference between the terrorist description and the ordinary criminal description is the real battle in many of these files, because its effect on the penalty and on the competent court is enormous. However, the assessment of whether specific intent is present in a particular incident is not built on the accused's own view of their intention, but on what the court infers from the circumstances of the act and its outward manifestations, an inference the lawyer confronts with precise technical tools that differ from one file to another.
Public order, as the most prominent of the aims the text had in mind, means the set of fundamental interests and pillars on which society and the state rest, which ensure their stability and the continuity of their institutions and the normal exercise of their functions; it is disturbed when the act is capable of harming the fundamental interests of the state, disrupting public life or threatening social and security stability. Endangering the safety and security of society, for its part, appears in acts that lead to spreading terror or threatening persons in their lives, property or interests, or disrupting public facilities and activities.
4. The Forms of Terrorist Crimes and Their Penalties
The Jordanian legislature addressed a number of forms that fall within the scope of terrorist crimes, the most prominent of which are the following.
The first form is committing a terrorist act according to the concept set out in Article 147(1). The legislature set its basic penalty in Article 148(2), providing that whoever commits a terrorist act shall be punished with labor for not less than ten years, and the penalty is aggravated according to the results and the means used, and may reach life labor or the death penalty in the cases specified by law.
The second form is dealing in suspicious funds linked to terrorist activity. Article 147(2) criminalized suspicious banking operations relating to depositing funds or transferring them to a party connected with terrorist activity. On this basis the legislature provided for a ban on disposing of the funds by decision of the Public Prosecutor until the investigation is complete, coordination by the Public Prosecutor with the Central Bank and the relevant bodies locally or internationally to verify the nature of the operation, and referral of the case to the competent court if the link between the banking operation and terrorist activity is proven. It also set a penalty for the perpetrator of the crime, in addition to punishing the administrative officer at the bank or financial institution who carried out the operation knowing its true nature, with confiscation of the frozen funds in accordance with the law. In the financial file the lawyer also examines Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Law No. 20 of 2021, which criminalized terrorist financing in a separate provision and assigned its cases to a specialized Public Prosecutor named by the Attorney General of the State Security Court; its provisions on attachment and confiscation are set out in the article on money laundering under Jordanian law.
The third form is conspiracy to commit a terrorist act or acts, which Article 148(1) punishes with temporary labor. Article 107 of the Penal Code defined conspiracy as an agreement made between two or more persons to commit one of the crimes set out in the chapter by specific means. A criminal agreement, whenever the elements of conspiracy and the terrorist aim are present, therefore becomes subject to criminalization even before the intended terrorist act is carried out.
The fourth form is manufacturing, acquiring, transporting, selling or delivering explosive materials or other dangerous materials specified by law, whenever this is done knowingly and with the intent of using them to carry out terrorist acts or enabling another person to use them for that purpose, as provided in Article 148(5). This crime is distinguished by the fact that criminalization may be accomplished merely by committing the physical acts relating to the dangerous materials, without requiring that they actually be used.
The fifth form is undermining the political system of government in the Kingdom or inciting opposition to it, as provided in Article 149(1). This includes forms of incitement in which the legal elements of the crime are present, whether in spoken or written form or by any other means in accordance with the law. In terms of means, this description comes close to other descriptions we addressed in our article on cybercrime, an overlap the lawyer scrutinizes when determining the correct description.
The sixth form is every individual or collective act whose aim is to change the economic or social structure of the state or the fundamental conditions of society, and it is established whenever the aim specified by law is present, whether the act is committed by one person or by a group.
The seventh form is detaining a person or holding them as a hostage, which Article 149(2) addressed with penalties aggravated according to the result: the penalty is as provided in the text in its basic form, is aggravated to life labor if the act results in harm to anyone, and reaches the death penalty if it results in anyone's death.
The eighth form is infiltrating or attempting to infiltrate into or out of the territory of the Kingdom, or assisting in doing so, if the person is carrying explosive, flammable, toxic, incendiary, epidemic, bacteriological, chemical or radioactive materials, as provided in Article 149(3). It is notable that the text placed infiltration and the attempt to infiltrate on an equal footing in punishment whenever the remaining elements are present. This early aggravation meets what we noted in our article on the crime of espionage in Jordanian legislation, since the two chapters share the feature of placing the moment of criminalization before the moment the result occurs.
Articles 147, 148 and 149 of the Penal Code, together with the provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Law No. 55 of 2006 and its amendments, form the legislative framework for confronting terrorist acts in the Jordanian legal system.
5. What the Case Law of the Court of Cassation Has Settled
Jordanian case law has settled a set of principles in interpreting the crime of terrorism and determining its elements, and knowing them is essential because they are what lines of defense are built on in practice:
In Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 2070 of 2020, the Court affirmed that the direct aim of the forms of terrorist activity is to create fear and panic in the opponent and in individuals who are not directly targeted, and it highlighted the importance of the psychological element, since terrorism does not target only a material result such as killing or sabotage, but also seeks to create a state of fear and terror within society; it also addressed the specific criminal intent consisting of disturbing public order or endangering the safety and security of society and spreading terror among people and frightening them.
In Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 1751 of 2020, the Court held that the legislature did not confine the forms of the material element to a particular act, but included performing a physical act, refraining from it or threatening it whenever that is capable of endangering the safety and security of society, stirring up sedition, disturbing public order or spreading terror among people; it affirmed that specific intent must be present alongside general intent, and that the motive that drove the offender to commit the act is disregarded in establishing criminal liability whenever the legal elements are present.
In Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 1750 of 2020, the Court derived from the provisions of Articles 147 and 148 that a terrorist act is established whenever the perpetrator uses violence or threatens to use it, whatever the motive, with the intent of achieving one of the aims specified by law, and it affirmed that the failure to achieve the result the offenders were aiming for does not necessarily prevent the terrorist crime from being established whenever its legal elements are complete.
In Judgment No. 1378 of 2017, the Court defined the terrorist crime as unlawful violence, whatever its means, carried out through planning, organization or execution, that leads to killing or attempted killing, threats, creating a state of terror and intimidation, spreading sedition or public chaos, or disturbing public order, regardless of the aims of its perpetrators or their political, religious, intellectual or ideological motives or purposes. It also affirmed, in the context of applying Article 7(c) of the Prevention of Terrorism Law, the need to prove the use of an information system, an information network, a means of publication or advertising, or a website to facilitate carrying out terrorist acts whenever that is the description attributed to the accused.
In Decision No. 1785 of 2016 (decided October 20, 2016), the Court affirmed that the terrorist crime rests on unlawful violence carried out through planning, organization or execution, that the motives and purposes of the terrorist act are disregarded in establishing the crime whenever its elements are present, and that the seriousness of the crime justifies the aggravated penal treatment prescribed for it. In the case that was the subject of the decision, the Court considered that the acts committed against individuals with a security and official capacity, in a place of security importance, which led to loss of life and the terrorizing of peaceful people, constituted the elements of the terrorist crime, and it also considered the continuation of the criminal activity an extension of the terrorist act itself in light of the circumstances of the case.
Added to this are Judgment No. 669 of 2019, which addressed the felony of forming a gang with the intent of attacking property and committing acts of banditry and set out its elements, and Judgment No. 1853 of 2008, which affirmed that the Court of Cassation's review of the trial court's assessment of the penalty takes place within the limits drawn by law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is physical violence required for the crime of terrorism to be established?
No. Article 147(1) provided that the conduct may be a positive act, an omission or a threat of the act. The Court of Cassation affirmed in Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 1751 of 2020 that the legislature did not confine the forms of the material element to a particular act.
Does the perpetrator's motive or purpose affect whether the crime is established?
The motive is disregarded. Article 147(1) expressly provided that the crime is established "whatever its motives, purposes or means", and the Court of Cassation affirmed this meaning in more than one decision, including Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 1751 of 2020 and Decision No. 1785 of 2016.
Is the crime established if the result the offenders intended does not occur?
The Court of Cassation held in Jordanian Court of Cassation (criminal) Decision No. 1750 of 2020 that the failure of the result to occur does not necessarily prevent the terrorist crime from being established whenever its legal elements are complete, because in some of its forms the legislature was satisfied that the conduct be capable of producing the effect.
What is the penalty for committing a terrorist act?
Article 148(2) provided that whoever commits a terrorist act shall be punished with labor for not less than ten years, and the penalty is aggravated according to the results and the means used, and may reach life labor or the death penalty in the cases specified by law.
Is an agreement punishable before the terrorist act is carried out?
Yes. Article 148(1) provided for punishing a conspiracy intended to commit a terrorist act or acts with temporary labor, and conspiracy, as defined by Article 107, is an agreement between two or more persons to commit one of the crimes of the chapter by specific means.
What is the difference between an ordinary threats crime and a terrorism crime?
The difference lies in the elements, not the means. The mere use of violence or threats is not enough to consider an act terrorist unless it is committed in execution of a criminal project and the aim specified by the text is present. For this reason, crimes of threats or assault may occur that are subject to the usual descriptions we addressed in our article on criminal threats in the Jordanian Penal Code, and determining the correct description between the two chapters is among the most delicate tasks the lawyer faces in these files.
Do terrorism crimes include financial dealings?
Yes. Article 147(2) criminalized suspicious banking operations relating to depositing funds or transferring them to a party connected with terrorist activity, and on that basis provided for a ban on disposing of the funds by decision of the Public Prosecutor until the investigation is complete, and for punishing the administrative officer at the bank or financial institution who carried out the operation knowing its true nature.
Is possession of dangerous materials punishable before they are used?
Article 148(5) criminalized manufacturing, acquiring, transporting, selling or delivering explosive materials and other dangerous materials whenever this is done knowingly and with the intent of using them in terrorist acts, and criminalization is accomplished merely by committing the physical acts, without requiring actual use.
Legal Consultation
Terrorism files are among the heaviest brought before the Jordanian judiciary, both for the accused, who faces penalties that reach life labor and the death penalty in some forms, and for society, which the legislature enacted these provisions to protect. What makes the defense in them so delicate is that the legal battle revolves neither around whether the result occurred nor around the perpetrator's motive, but around specific intent, the capacity of the act to produce the effect and the existence of the criminal project, all elements inferred from the circumstances of the file and settled at early stages in which what is missed is hard to remedy. Hence engaging a lawyer who knows these provisions and the Court of Cassation's case law on them from the very first day is the difference between one criminal description and another whose penalty and court differ radically, which our firm's team handles through defense and representation in State Security Court cases, including contesting the terrorist description and building the defenses related to the mental element. You can contact Alabwini Law Firm to arrange a specialist legal consultation.
