Customer sentenced to 8 years after stabbing coffee shop employee

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a January Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a frequent customer of a coffee shop to eight years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder an employee in Zarqa in December 2020. 

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of stabbing the victim in the chest on December 30 following  “a heated argument”. 

The defendant was first handed a 12-year prison term.

However, the court reduced the sentence to eight years because the victim dropped the charges against the defendant.

Court papers said the defendant was a regular customer at coffee shop where the victim worked.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained, the defendant went to the coffee shop and engaged in "a heated argument" with the victim.

“The victim asked the defendant to leave the premises, which angered him,” court papers said.

The defendant headed to a street vendor, “grabbed a knife that was with him and returned to the shop where he stabbed the victim once in the chest”, according to the court papers.

The victim survived the assault after undergoing surgery to his chest at a nearby hospital, the court papers added. 

Attending physicians at the hospital determined that the injuries were life-threatening and he survived due to medical intervention.

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

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

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