Two handed death sentence for murder of gendarme

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday sentenced two men to death after convicting them of murdering Second Lieutenant Nart Nafesh, 23, in Maan in August 2014.

The court also sentenced a third suspect to life in prison, declared a fourth innocent for lack of evidence and referred a minor to a juvenile court because he should not be tried as an adult at the SSC, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The SSC convictions against the defendants included conspiracy to commit terrorist acts that led to the death of an individual, possessing illegal automatic weapons and spreading terrorist ideologies.

The SSC charge sheet said four of the five defendants wanted to avenge the killing of one of their relatives during the unrest in Maan, some 220km south of Amman, and decided to target any police officer or gendarme in the city.  

On the day of the incident, the SSC charge sheet added, the group obtained three automatic rifles and "roamed the streets searching for police or army personnel to kill”.

The group saw an armoured truck parked guarding a point in the city and saw an officer descending from it, the charge sheet added.

Two of the suspects opened fire with their automatic weapons, striking Nafesh in the chest at 4:45am on August 4, 2014. 

The gendarme was rushed to Maan Public Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Sunday’s verdicts will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.