Man sentenced to death for murdering, robbing his father

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a June Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to death after convicting him of murdering and robbing his 60-year-old father in Amman in January 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of premeditatedly murdering his father by strangling him to death with a headscarf while in his care on January 31, and handed him the death penalty.

Court documents said the defendant was a “troublemaker, alcoholic and drug addict”.

The defendant would often argue with his father about his “troublesome life” and sometimes their arguments would turn physical, according to court documents.

One week before the incident, the court added, the defendant decided to “kill his father to get rid of him”.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained the defendant snuck in the backseat of his father’s vehicle armed with a gun and a headscarf.

"The minute the victim sat behind the wheels, his son wrapped the headscarf around his neck and squeezed it until he was dead,” court papers said.

The defendant took his father’s bank card and mobile phone, then dumped his body in an area close to their home, according to court papers.

The defendants withdrew JD2,000 in cash from his father’s account, court documents stated.

He also sold his mobile for JD100 in a nearby shop, and then returned home, court papers said.

When he returned home, his family informed him that their father failed to come back home, the court papers continued.

“The defendant pretended to be worried and went with the family to look for his father,” court papers said.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general had asked the higher court to uphold the death sentence ruling, stating that the court abided by the proper legal procedures when sentencing the defendant.

The Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgement fell within the law, that the proceedings were proper and the sentence given was satisfactory.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Bassim Mubeidin, Saeed Mugheid and Hayel Amr.