Restaurant employee sentenced to 15 years for strangling child to death

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a December Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a restaurant employee to 15 years in prison for murdering a six-year-old child and placing his body in a barrel in the Balqa Governorate in June of 2019.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of murdering the child on June 17, and handed him a 20-year prison term.

However, the court reduced the sentence to 15 years because the victim’s father dropped the charges against the defendant.

According to court papers, the defendant worked at a restaurant near the victim’s residence.

“The victim would often go to the restaurant where the defendant worked,” court papers said.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained, the victim headed to the restaurant as usual.

"The victim grabbed the defendant’s leg, so he beat him up then strangled him with his hands,” the court documents said.

The defendant then placed the victim's body in a water barrel and closed the restaurant, according to the court papers.

The following day, the court papers stated, the defendant brought a suitcase to the restaurant to place the body in, but the suitcase broke.

“The defendant spotted the police in the area with cadaver dogs that were looking for the child, and went to a friend’s house to claim that he found a dead child in a barrel near his residence,” the court papers added.

His friend became suspicious of his story and alerted the authorities, the court papers added.

The defendant contested the court ruling through his lawyer, arguing that he did not intend to “kill the child, but only to harm him”.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the 15-year sentence.

The higher court ruled that the Criminal Court proceedings had been accurate and that the defendant was given the appropriate punishment.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Hammad Ghzawi, Mohammad Khashashneh and Nayef Samarat.