Two men handed 15-year prison terms for murder

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced two men to 15 years in prison after convicting them of shooting and killing a man at a hospital in Irbid in May 2017.

The court declared the two defendants guilty of shooting and killing 45-year-old engineer Quteibah Shiab while visiting a hospital in the town of Sarih in Irbid Governorate, some 80km north of Amman. The court handed each of them a 15-year prison term. 

Court documents said that the defendants, who were from one tribe, had been engaged in constant brawls with another tribe for several years before the shooting incident.

On May 10, court documents said, the defendants headed to the hospital to see some of their relatives who were injured from a recent conflict with the other tribe.

In the meantime, the court maintained, Shiab was on a visit to the hospital checking on those injured during the recent fight between the two tribes.

The two defendants shot Shiab with pump-action rifles while at the hospital, the court documents said.

"The victim was at the wrong place at the wrong time and he was not the intended target," a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times. 

The verdict, handed down by Judges Tareq Shuqierat, Tariq Rashid and Salah Obeisat, will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.

A dozen other defendants standing trial on various charges, including murder and attempted murder, were declared innocent "for lack of evidence", the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times on Saturday.