The State Security Court said it unanimously issued a final ruling against the defendant, finding him guilty of assaulting law enforcement personnel tasked with enforcing narcotics laws, resulting in the deaths of three officers and injuries to another.

According to the court’s statement, the accused was convicted on multiple charges related to the attack and received the harshest penalty available under Jordanian law, a sentence of capital punishment.

The case stems from a March 18 security operation conducted by Jordan’s Anti-Narcotics Department. During the raid, three officers were killed and a fourth was wounded before authorities arrested the suspect and seized quantities of drugs and weapons, according to the Public Security Directorate.

While Jordan’s legal system continues to permit capital punishment, executions have effectively been suspended for years. The last known executions were carried out in 2017, when authorities hanged 15 convicted prisoners, including 10 found guilty of terrorism-related offenses.

The ruling comes as Jordan faces mounting challenges linked to drug trafficking and cross-border smuggling. Authorities have significantly increased enforcement efforts in recent years amid concerns over the kingdom’s role as a transit route for narcotics destined for regional markets.

Jordanian officials say the vast majority of drugs seized within the country are intended for smuggling beyond its borders rather than domestic consumption. Government figures show that security agencies arrested more than 38,000 individuals last year in over 25,000 cases involving drug use, trafficking and smuggling.

Security forces have also stepped up operations along Jordan’s lengthy frontier with Syria, where the military regularly reports intercepting attempts to smuggle narcotics, particularly captagon pills, into or through the kingdom.

Captagon trafficking expanded significantly during the Syrian conflict and became one of the region’s most lucrative illicit trades during the rule of former Syrian president Bashar Assad. Jordan has repeatedly cited drug smuggling as a major national security concern and has intensified cooperation between military and law enforcement agencies to curb the flow of narcotics.

The court’s decision reflects the increasingly hard-line approach adopted by Jordanian authorities toward drug-related crimes, particularly cases involving violence against security personnel engaged in counter-narcotics operations.

The ruling marks one of the most significant judicial actions taken by Bahrain in recent months against individuals accused of maintaining links with Iranian security organizations amid heightened regional tensions between Gulf states and Tehran.

According to the report carried by the Bahrain News Agency, the defendants were convicted of gathering information on sensitive locations within Bahrain and facilitating financial transfers connected to the alleged activities.

The court said the defendants had collaborated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, commonly known as the IRGC, which Bahrain and several of its regional partners have repeatedly accused of supporting activities that threaten Gulf security.

The verdict follows an announcement by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry on May 9 that security forces had arrested 41 individuals allegedly linked to the IRGC. Authorities said investigations uncovered a network connected to the Iranian organization, while prosecutors were also examining cases involving expressions of support for Iranian military actions.

Bahraini officials have not publicly disclosed the identities of those convicted, nor have they released detailed information regarding the specific locations targeted or the extent of the alleged intelligence-gathering activities.

Relations between Bahrain and Iran have long been strained by security disputes, accusations of interference and broader geopolitical rivalries across the Gulf region.

The latest convictions come amid increased regional scrutiny of alleged IRGC-linked activities following months of heightened military and diplomatic tensions involving Iran, Israel, Gulf Arab states and the United States.

Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the United States Fifth Fleet and is a close security partner of Washington, making the island kingdom a strategically important player in Gulf security architecture.

Authorities have not indicated whether additional prosecutions related to the May arrests are expected.

The three-judge panel dismissed Tarrant’s claim that harsh prison conditions and poor mental health had caused him to plead guilty involuntarily in March 2020, concluding there was no evidence he had suffered from a mental impairment that affected his legal judgment.

“He was not suffering from a mental impairment or any other form of mental incapacity which rendered him unable to voluntarily change his pleas to guilty,” the judges wrote in their decision.

The court said the Australian national, now 35, had attempted to mislead judges about his mental state in what it described as “a weak attempt to advance an appeal,” adding that evidence showed he had made an informed and rational decision when he admitted guilt.

Tarrant carried out the attacks in March 2019, driving to two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers and opening fire with semiautomatic weapons, killing 51 people and injuring dozens more in New Zealand’s deadliest modern mass shooting.

His guilty pleas a year later spared victims’ families and survivors from a lengthy public trial, which many feared would give him a platform to spread extremist views.The appeal court noted that Tarrant’s bid to challenge those pleas was filed 505 days after the legal deadline, but it proceeded to hear the matter because of its public significance.

During a five-day hearing in February, Tarrant argued that “irrationality” caused by poor mental health had temporarily led him to abandon his white supremacist ideology and plead guilty.

The judges rejected that argument, saying prison staff, mental health professionals and his former lawyers did not support his claims. They also noted that he had accepted the summary of facts presented by police and the sentencing judge, while the evidence against him was overwhelming.

That evidence included video footage of the attack that Tarrant filmed himself and livestreamed online, clearly showing his face, as well as a manifesto outlining his racist ideology that he published under his real name before the shootings.

The ruling also disclosed that Tarrant sought to abandon the appeal shortly after presenting his case in February, but judges refused, saying the matter was of “significant public interest and should be finally determined.”They said he appeared to conclude the hearing was not going in his favor and then attempted to withdraw the case after proceedings ended.

Tarrant was sentenced in August 2020 to life imprisonment without parole, the first such sentence in New Zealand’s history. He remains in Auckland Prison.The judges allowed him to abandon a separate appeal against that sentence, which had been scheduled to be heard later in 2026.