Four suspects, including minor, charged with premeditated murder, robbery

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Tuesday charged four people, including a minor, with premeditated murder and robbery in connection with the death of a security guard earlier this month, official sources said.

The 51-year-old victim was found murdered on April 3 while guarding companies in the Rajeeb area behind the Jordan Customs Department headquarters.

The victim received several blows to the head and coroners at the scene estimated that he had been dead for less than 24 hours.

The four suspects, including a 17-year-old, were in the process of stealing from a shop and were surprised by the victim who attempted to prevent them, and killed him, a senior judicial source said.

“The suspects killed the guard using blunt objects, strangled him to death with a piece of cloth and fled after robbing the shop,” the source told The Jordan Times.

A special police taskforce was formed to investigate the murder, a Public Security Department (PSD) statement said.

“Despite the fact that the suspects left no evidence at the scene police studied files of previous suspects who committed similar crimes. Based on the way the murder and robbery were committed and by comparing files, investigators managed to identify the suspects,” the PSD statement said.

Special police forces raided the suspects’ homes and arrested them without any major incidents, according to the PSD statement.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Salah Taleb heard the testimony of the four suspects, indicted them and referred the minor to a juvenile prosecutor for further questioning and legal action, the judicial source said.

Taleb issued orders for the three remaining suspects to be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigation into the incident, the source added.