Man sentenced to 15 years in prison for murder of his 2 brothers

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an October Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to 15 years in prison after convicting him of murdering his two brothers in Ajloun Governorate in November 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of shooting and killing his two brothers in their family home in the town of Anjara on November 27.

The court handed the defendant life in prison.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to 15 years because the victims' family dropped the charges against their son.

Court papers said that the victims were residing with their mother because “they were unmarried and were known to be trouble makers convicted of drug-related cases”.

On the day of the incident, the court documents said, the two victims fought with their mother and destroyed objects in her kitchen.

“The siblings’ mother contacted the defendant, who resided almost 400 metres from her house, seeking his help and intervention,” according to the court papers.

When the defendant arrived, “the two victims fought with him, so he left the house after the situation between him and his brother had calmed down,” the court papers added.

The victims, however, went to the kitchen and set it on fire, “prompting their mother to contact the defendant again seeking his help”, the court transcripts said.

When the defendant arrived, he engaged in “a heated argument” with the two victims, according to the court transcripts.

“The defendant rushed to one of the rooms where he hid a machinegun and headed back to where the victims were standing,” the court papers added.

When the two victims saw him, the court papers stated, “they headed to the kitchen to hide, but he followed them and fired dozens of rounds towards them”.

“The two brothers were killed instantly after sustaining multiple bullet wounds to different parts of their bodies,” the court said.

The defendant then contacted the police and informed them that he had killed his two brothers. The defendant then “sat on the kitchen floor waiting for the law-enforcement officers to arrest him,” the court said.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the sentence against the defendant "because the punishment he received was proper".

Meanwhile, the defendant, through his lawyer, contested the court’s ruling, arguing that “he killed his two brothers in a moment of rage”.

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court had followed the proper procedures and the defendant deserved the verdict he had received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mahmoud Ebtoush, Qassem Dughmi, Nayef Samarat, Hammad Ghzawi and Mohammad Khashashneh.