By Rana Husseini

AMMAN - The Criminal Court has sentenced a 22-year-old man to six years and eight months in prison after convicting him of engaging in consensual sex with a minor in November 2006 in an Amman neighbourhood.

The tribunal declared Khalid I., a Zarqa resident, guilty of engaging in sexual activities with his 17-year-old female relative 83 times in a tent he erected on a main road.

Court transcripts said the defendant wanted to marry the minor but her family refused so he decided to engage in sexual activities with the girl to force her family to accept the marriage.

“The defendant and the minor fled together from their homes in Zarqa on November 26 and headed to Amman where they erected a tent and lived together for seven months before the matter was exposed,” the court said.

The defendant had entered a guilty plea in previous court sessions, informing the judges that he committed these acts to force her family to let their daughter marry him.

The verdict, handed down on September 6 but made available to The Jordan Times on Thursday, will automatically be reviewed by a higher court within the next 30 days.

In a second court ruling, the Criminal Court sentenced three men each to a one-year prison term after convicting them of resisting arrest during a police chase in March 2005.

The three men, aged between 22 and 25, were convicted of resisting arrest and firing live bullets randomly while being chased by a police patrol.

No one was injured in the March 1, 2005 incident, the court said.

The court said the three defendants drove by a house in Naour and fired several rounds and then fled.

A nearby police patrol chased the defendants, who responded by firing several shots in the air to scare off the police, the court added.

The suspects managed to evade the patrol, but were later arrested by police, according to court papers.

The September 4 verdict is subject to appeal by the defendants and the Criminal Court attorney general at a higher court within the next 30 days.