22-year-old man sentenced to death for murder

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a May Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 22-year-old man to death after convicting him of premeditated murder to facilitate a robbery in Ruseifah in Zarqa Governorate in April 2015.

The court declared the defendant guilty of robbing and murdering a 50-year-old man at his shop in Ruseifah, some 12km east of Amman on April 27, and handed him the maximum punishment. 

Court papers said that the defendant often visited the victim, who owned a scrap shop.

“The defendant decided to rob the victim. He bought gloves, a scarf and a blunt object then headed to the victim’s shop after everyone left to rob him,” court documents said. 

The defendant demanded cash but the victim resisted, so he stabbed him over 12 times on different parts of his body, took JD256 and left, court papers added.

The murder was solved two weeks after the discovery of the body when police received information that three individuals were attempting to sell a stolen vehicle in Mafraq, some 80km northeast if Amman.

The DNA samples and fingerprints of the three men revealed evidence that tied the defendant to the April murder. 

Investigators also relied on cameras’ “security tapes that were in the shop and a handful of witnesses who informed authorities that the defendant had confessed to the murder,” according to court papers. 

The defendant had contested the court ruling claiming that he did not “plot to murder the victim and that the killing was the spur of the moment”.

The defendant also charged that “his statement was taken after being subjected to torture and duress for one week while in custody, which makes his confession illegal”.

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court’s proceedings were accurate and correct and the defendant received the appropriate punishment.

The Cassation Court comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Naji Zubi, Bassim Mubeidin and Mohammad Tarawneh.