Death penalty upheld for man convicted of killing brother

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a February Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 42-year-old man to death after convicting him of killing his older brother in the Ein Basha area of Amman in September 2015.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of murdering his 44-year-old sibling by shooting him with a pump-action shotgun on September 22, 2015.

According to court documents, the suspect accused the victim of “being involved in a relationship with his Egyptian wife”.

 “The [at-the-time] defendant’s wife left her husband and returned to Egypt, which angered the defendant because he thought that his brother was involved,” the court transcripts said.

On the day of the incident, the court said, the husband, a water tank driver, headed to his brother’s house “and, the minute he saw him, he shot him once in the chest with the pump-action”.

The court relied in its ruling on several witnesses who testified that the defendant “had repeatedly threatened to kill his brother, because he [the victim] had previously filed a complaint against him and he [the accused] had been locked up in prison for 105 days as a result”, the verdict said.

 The victim’s wife, a mother of five children aged between 18 months and 11 years, refused to drop the charges against her brother-in-law, according to the court’s verdict.   

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court’s ruling, arguing that “he committed the murder in a moment of rage”.

The defendant also argued, through his lawyer, that “he deserved to have his verdict reduced because he did not plot the murder and the shooting was spontaneous”.

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

The higher court ruled in late May that the Criminal Court proceedings were accurate and correct and the defendant received the appropriate punishment.

The court comprised former president of the Cassation Court Judge Hesham Tel, and judges Basil Abu Anzeh, Bassim Mubeidin, Mohammad Ibrahim and Naji Zu’bi.