Cassation Court upholds 7-year sentence in minor’s sexual assault case

AMMAN — The Cassation Court upheld a January Criminal Court decision to sentence a man to seven years in person after convicting him of sexually assaulting his minor relative in Mafraq in November 2022.

The Criminal Court handed the defendant a seven-year prison term after convicting him of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on several occasions while at her family’s home.

Court documents said the defendant and the victim lived in the same house because he was a close relative.

The defendant would “sexually assault the girl when her parents were out of the house,” court transcripts said.

"The defendant threatened the victim that he would kill her father if she told anyone about the sexual assault," the court said.

However, the matter was exposed when the victim decided to inform her mother about the sexual assault incidents and a complaint was filed against him, the court maintained.

The defendant was arrested and the victim was referred to the Family Protection Department for further examination and questioning, the court maintained.

“The court relied on DNA evidence from samples taken from the victim’s clothes and body which matched the defendant’s DNA,” according to court transcripts.

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court’s ruling through his lawyer claiming that “there were illegal investigation procedures”.

Meanwhile, The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the ruling.

The Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgment fell within the law, that the proceedings were proper, and that the sentence was satisfactory.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mahmoud Ebtoush, Hammad Ghzawi, Mahmoud Shreiri, Nayef Samarat and Mohamad Khashashneh.