Police find missing man tied, beaten 8 hours after case opened

AMMAN — Less than eight hours after a man was reported missing, police found him tied and locked up in a house in Jerash, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Tuesday.

The man’s family had told the police they lost contact with him after he left for work, the Public Security Department’s (PSD) media centre said in a statement carried by Petra, without elaborating on the exact date of the incident.    

Initial evidence led the police to expand their search after leads pointed to a possible crime.

Through investigation, the police found the man, who is in his fifties, had been beaten up in a house in Jerash, 48km north of Amman.

They sent him to hospital, and his condition is stable, the PSD said, according to Petra. 

Police discovered that the house belonged to two Arab nationals. 

Investigators tracked down the suspects and detained them in Amman’s northeastern neighbourhood of Marka, the PSD said, adding that the men were in possession of money that belonged to the victim.

The suspects confessed that the victim was a business acquaintance and they knew he was in possession of some money, so they robbed him and then forced him to drive to the house in Jerash in his own car, where they locked him up.     

The two men then abandoned the car in Mafraq, some 80km northeast of Amman, and headed back to Amman, according to the PSD, which added that further investigations are under way. 

Also on Tuesday, the PSD said a suspect has been detained for setting fire to three cars that belonged to residents of Madaba camp.

Police started looking into the case around a week ago when they learned about the incident and the fire had been extinguished, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Tuesday. 

The cars were parked in different areas of the camp and investigators found traces of petrol near another five vehicles. 

The investigation led the police to the 17-year-old suspect, who was apprehended and confessed to setting fire to the cars for personal reasons.