Filicide case sent back to Criminal Court

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has overturned a December Criminal Court verdict sentencing a man to eight years in prison after convicting him of beating his teenage son to death in Mafraq in July 2019.

The court declared the defendant guilty of beating his 13-year-old son to death following an argument on July 7 and handed him a 12-year prison sentence.

The sentence was immediately reduced to half because the victim’s mother dropped the charges against her husband.

The court also decided to amend the premeditated murder charges originally pressed against the defendant to beating to death “because it was proven to the court that the manslaughter factor does not exist in this incident”.

Court papers said that the defendant and his son had an argument on the day of the incident over familial matters.

 “The defendant beat up his son with hands and legs and pushed him to the ground causing an injury to his head,” court papers said.

The victim died shortly following the physical abuse inflicted by the defendant, according to court documents.

The defendant’s attorney had contested the ruling stating that “his client did not intend to kill the victim, and that the death was accidental since he beat his son up to discipline him”.

The Criminal Court’s prosecutor general had contested the ruling stating that the defendant intended to murder his son when he beat him up.

The prosecutor general added that “the defendant should not benefit from any reductions in penalty because he is the guardian of his family and should be a source of security, not danger”.

The higher court decided to overturn the verdict ruling that the Criminal Court’s conclusion of how the incident occurred was not correct.

“The Criminal Court’s conclusion to amend the charge is incorrect and the tribunal needs to reconsider its verdict,” the higher court ruled.

Therefore, the Cassation Court added, “the case will be sent back to the Criminal Court to re-examine the case and consider adopting the original charge when issuing its verdict.” 

The Cassation Court comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azeb, Hayel Amr, Nayef Samarat and Fawzi Nahar.