A Jordanian court has sentenced three men to death by hanging for last month’s deadly gun attack on a church in the kingdom’s south. Jordan’s State Security Court handed down the verdict on Sunday, state media reported.

Gunmen stormed a funeral service at the Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Hammoud village, in Karak governorate, on October 23. The attack left nine people dead and more than two dozen wounded. The village is about 80 kilometres south of the capital, Amman.

All nine of the dead were men, and most belonged to the Halasah clan, one of the country’s most prominent families.

Authorities said the suspects, two Jordanian brothers and a relative by marriage, fled the scene but were arrested three days later. Prosecutors charged them on November 3 with seven terrorism-related offences, including committing terrorist acts resulting in death, which carries the death penalty under Jordan’s anti-terrorism law. Officials described the men as followers of a hardline ideology.

The court convicted the three on nine counts of committing terrorist acts resulting in death and two counts of carrying out terrorist acts with weapons and ammunition. They were also convicted of possessing weapons and ammunition for terrorist purposes, conspiring to carry out terrorist acts and promoting the ideas of a terrorist group.

One of the three was additionally found guilty of providing funds to finance the attack under Jordan’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing law.

The verdict is subject to appeal before the Court of Cassation and is automatically referred to the court for review, according to the state news agency Petra.

The attack shocked the kingdom, where Christians number about 250,000 in a population of 11 million. It has been described as the deadliest assault on the country’s Christian minority since the 1950s. In the aftermath, Jordan launched air strikes on what it called terrorist organisations in Syria, claiming to have killed more than 20 militants.

The strikes triggered a brief diplomatic row with Damascus. King Abdullah has vowed that terrorists will not be allowed to undermine the country’s security and unity.