Minor gets 2 years in juvenile centre for molestation

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a June 2019 Juvenile Court ruling sentencing a minor to two years at a juvenile detention centre after being convicted of molesting a minor in 2016. 

The Juvenile Court found the minor guilty of molesting an 11-year-old boy in a deserted area in one of the Kingdom’s governorates and handed him a four-year prison term. 

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to two years in detention because the victim’s family dropped charges against the defendant and because he is young, and “deserves a second chance in life”. 

Court papers said the victim was walking home from his school when he was met by the defendant and three other defendants, all minors, who did not appeal their verdicts. 

“The defendants grabbed the victim to a deserted area where they took turns sexually assaulting him,” according to court documents. 

The victim managed to escape after some of the defendants left “to get more people to sexually assault him”, according to court papers.

The minor informed his family of the sexual assault incident and they immediately alerted the Family Protection Department, the court papers added.

The higher court ruled that the Juvenile Court had followed the proper procedures and the defendant deserved the verdict he received. 

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat and Saeed Mugheid.