Cassation Court upholds 8-year sentence for attempted murder case

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a February 2022 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to eight years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder a man in Irbid in December 2019.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of attempted murder on December 9 and handed him a 12-year prison term with hard labour.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to eight years because the victim dropped charges against the defendant.

Court papers said the victim was sitting on the balcony of his house when he heard people arguing in the street.

"The victim rushed to interfere and stop the fight but was obstructed by the victim who pulled to the garage of the building," court documents said.

 “The defendant pinned the victim to the wall, pulled a knife and stabbed him three times in the back,” court papers said.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries to his back, according to court documents.

The court added that the victim survived the stabbing incident due to medical interference.

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

The lawyer also argued that the court relied on contradictory statements by some of the witnesses “and rejected our objection in this matter”.

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

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

“The court relied on matching testimonies by the witnesses and the DNA evidence collected at the crime scene which supported the prosecution’s charges,” the court ruled.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Hayel Amr, Ibrahim Abu Shamma and Fawzi Nahar.