Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to 20 years in prison for murdering a Syrian national following “a heated argument” regarding an alleged sexual molestation incident in Mafraq in August 2020.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of murdering the victim with an iron bar following an alleged sexual molestation in mid-August of a seven-year-old girl, who is the defendant’s relative, and handed him the maximum sentence.

According to court papers, the defendant was in his shop in Dleil area when he saw “his seven-year-old relative running towards him frantically”.

“The child told him that the victim molested her and when he looked towards his direction, he saw him zipping his pants and heading back to his house,” the court papers said.

The defendant told investigators he became enraged and decided “to murder the victim”, according to court papers.

"The defendant went back to his house and grabbed an iron bar and a scarf to hide his face then headed to the victim’s home,” the court papers recorded.

The minute he saw the victim, the court maintained, “he argued with him about the sexual molestation incident then he struck him repeatedly with the iron bar on his head until he made sure he was dead then left," the court documents said.

The victim was discovered by his neighbour two days later and he alerted the authorities, court papers added.

The defendant contested the verdict through his lawyer, arguing that he “committed the murder in a moment of rage because of the immoral acts the victim practised against the young girl”.

The defence argued that the client was “subjected to duress to confess and had no knowledge of the legal proceedings or his rights when he was questioned by investigators”.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general appealed the verdict asking the higher court for a higher punishment “since the defendant plotted the murder”.

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

“It was proven to court that the defendant did not plot the murder, and at the same time, he did not commit it in a moment of rage since it happened almost an hour after the reported sexual molestation incident,” the higher court ruled.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Fawzi Nahar, Hayel Amr, Saeed Mugheid and Nayef Samarat.