Cassation Court upholds 2 minors’ sentence in child molesting case

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a February Juvenile Court ruling, sentencing a minor to an increased prison term after convicting him of sexually assaulting a child in Zarqa in August 2018.

The court first declared the defendant guilty of sodomising the nine-year-old boy on August 11 and handed him a three-year prison term to be served at a juvenile correctional and rehabilitation facility.

A second minor, who was standing trial on the same charges, but did not appeal his verdict, also received the same increased punishment of four-and-a-half years.

“The court decided to increase the punishment because the two minors committed a heinous crime against the child since the two minors took turns in molesting the boy,” the court transcripts said.

Court papers said the victim left his family’s home to buy thread for his mother from a nearby shop.

“One of the defendants spotted the boy and lured him to a deserted area where he sexually assaulted him,” according to the court transcripts.

While leaving the deserted area, the court maintained, “the two met with the second defendant, who after learning what the first defendant did, proceeded to sexually assault the boy after dragging him to an isolated area”, the court documents stated.

“The victim returned home and informed his father who immediately reported the incident to the Family Protection Department,” court papers added.

The defendant had contested the ruling through his lawyer arguing that “the victim provided contradictory statements during court proceedings”.

“The prosecution office also failed to provide any solid evidence that could implicate my client and the DNA sample that was analysed by the criminal lab belonged to the second defendant and not my client,” court papers added.

The Juvenile Court prosecution office asked the higher court to uphold the ruling.

However, the higher court rejected the defendant’s argument and ruled that the Juvenile Court followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendant and he deserved the verdict he had received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Bassem Mubeidin, Yassin Abdullat and Saeed Mugheid.