Man sentenced to nine years for attempted murder, sexual assault

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a January 2023 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to nine years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder a teenager in March 2020.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of complicity in attempted murder, stemming from “an old dispute” with the victim, on March 7.

The court also convicted the defendant of sexual assault charges and handed him a total of nine years in prison for the two charges.

Court papers said the defendant, along with two other men who were convicted in the same case but did not appeal their verdicts, had an old feud with the victim.

"The defendants decided to lure the victim to a deserted area where they sexually assaulted him and filmed the incident,” court documents said.

One of the three defendants drew a gun and shot the victim in the legs, the court added.

The 18-year-old victim was rushed to a nearby hospital and survived the shooting incident after undergoing a few surgeries, the court papers added.

The defendant contested his ruling via his lawyer arguing that there were “legal errors in the investigation procedures”.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the eight-year sentence ruling.

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

 “It was clear to the court that the three suspects were complicit in the incident which led to attempting to kill the young man after luring him to a deserted area,” the higher court ruled.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mahmoud Ebtoush, Majid Azab, Ibrahim Abu Shamma, Fawzi Nahar and Mohammad Shreiri.