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Libyan national sentenced to death for murder

By Rana Husseini - Dec 23,2018 - Last updated at Dec 23,2018

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Sunday convicted and sentenced a Libyan man to death for murdering a fellow national in Amman in July of 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of shooting his 22-year-old friend to death, and then setting his body ablaze in a rented vehicle at the Amman National Park on July 23.

The Civil Defence Department was called in to the area to extinguish a burning vehicle, when they found the charred body and called the police, according to the court.

Court documents said that the defendant and the victim were friends and roommates and were both studying at an aviation academy in Jordan.

A few days before the murder, court transcripts maintained, the suspect claimed that “the victim falsely accused him of stealing around JD40,000 from him and had threatened to expose him”.

The defendant stated that the victim began spreading the stolen cash story among their friends, so "he became enraged and plotted to kill him", the court added.

“The adult suspect lured the victim with the help of a minor and they drove in a rented vehicle to a deserted area where the adult suspect shot him [the victim] once in the head.”

The defendant then drove to a secluded area of the park and set the car on fire using gasoline and coal in an attempt to conceal evidence, according to court documents. 

However, investigators were able to identify the person who rented the vehicle from its licence plates “which pointed to one of the defendants”.

"The defendant had bought a ticket to return to Libya and was about to leave the country via Queen Alia International Airport when he was stopped by the authorities," court transcripts said.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Baker Quran had asked the court to hand the defendant the maximum sentence.

Sunday’s verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.

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