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Man acquitted of charges of ‘raping woman 3,000 times in 5 years’

By Rana Husseini - Aug 31,2017 - Last updated at Aug 31,2017

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March Criminal Court ruling acquitting a man of raping a divorced woman in 2008, concluding that the relationship had been consensual.

The court declared the defendant not guilty of raping the woman over 3,000 times over a five-year period.

The court papers said that the defendant already knew the woman in 2008 and they were engaged in a relationship after she got divorced from her husband.

“The woman asked the defendant to change his religion since he was Christian so they could  get married in accordance with Sharia [Islamic law],” the court documents said.

The defendant produced a paper issued by a religious establishment stating that “he became a Muslim” and “the couple got an urfi marriage”, court papers added.

 Urfi marriages have no official contract and are often kept secret. Couples repeat the words: “We got married,” and pledge commitment before God. Usually, a paper is written stating that the couple is married and two witnesses sign it. The marriage can be broken simply by destroying that paper. 

After a few years, the woman asked the defendant to “register their marriage at the Sharia Court but he refused, claiming that he wanted to maintain his previous marriage to his Christian wife”, court papers added.

“The defendant then took the urfi document with him and, a few months later, he disappeared. The woman then decided to file a rape case against him,” the court added. 

The higher court said in upholding the acquittal verdict that “the woman engaged in an affair before he married her and knew all along that he was Christian. She willingly engaged in sexual activities with the defendant.”

Therefore, the higher court added, “the rape conditions do not apply in her case”. 

 

The Cassation Court comprised judges Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh, Mohammad Beirudi, Mohammad Ersheidat and Bassem Mubeidin.

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