Death penalty for man who killed neighbour over personal dispute

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a January Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 36-year-old man to death after convicting him of killing a merchant over financial and personal disputes in Karak in January 2016.

The court declared the defendant guilty of the shooting death of Turki Sarairah, 38, in Mutah, some 140 km south of Amman, in January 2016 and handed him the capital punishment.

Court papers said the defendant and the victim were neighbours in business and had a “dispute over money and alleged bad treatment on the part of the victim”.

The defendant plotted to kill the victim and bought a gun for this purpose, the court said, adding, on the day of the incident, the defendant entered the victim’s shop wearing a hood to conceal his identity and shot him once in the chest then left.  

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

The defendant contested the court’s ruling stating that “the court depended on contradictory statements of witnesses and that the premeditated factor in this incident does not exist”.

However, the higher court ruled that the verdict was accurate and the defendant deserved the punishment he received. 

Sarairah is survived by his 35-year-old wife, a three-year-old daughter and a 9-month-old boy.

The Court of Cassation comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat and Bassem Mubeidin.