Car dealer receives prison sentence for murdering friend over debt

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an October 2019 Criminal Court ruling sentencing an Iraqi car dealer to seven-and-a-half years in prison for the murder of an Egyptian man in Amman in August 2015. 

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of murdering the 32-year-old victim while in his car in Rasheed neighbourhood on August 1, 2015, and handed him the death penalty.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to 15 years in prison and following a Royal amnesty in 2019, the sentence was reduced by half, according to the court verdict.

Court papers said that the defendant and the victim became friends in 2009.

 “The victim gave the defendant JD20,000 to invest in his car dealership business,” court papers said.

The defendant, however, failed to provide the victim with any profits “and kept giving him various excuses”, court papers said.

As a result, the court maintained, the victim asked the defendant to “give him back the JD20,000”.

“The defendant did not have the money, so he decided to kill the victim and prepared a knife for this purpose,” according to court papers.

On the day of the incident, court papers stated, the defendant contacted the victim via messaging and informed him that he had secured the cash.

“The defendant took the victim for a ride, then parked the car and stabbed the victim repeatedly in his neck and other parts of his body,” the court papers said.

The victim crawled out of the car and headed to a nearby pharmacy to ask for help, the court maintained.

“The pharmacist attempted to stop the bleeding, but the victim succumbed to his injuries and died,” the court stated.

Meanwhile, several people witnessed the incident. The defendant fled from the area but was later arrested by the police, the court added.

The Court of Cassation ruled that the verdict was accurate and the defendant had received the appropriate punishment.  

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zoubi, Saeed Mugheid, Yassin Abdullat and Hammad Ghzawi.