Cassation Court upholds 4-year sentence for man engaged in sexual activities with minor

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld a November 2023 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to four years in prison after convicting him of engaging in consensual sexual activities with a teenager in November 2022.

The court declared the defendant guilty of engaging in sexual activities with the 15-year-old girl 24 times in Amman.

The defendant was handed the maximum punishment by the court.

Court papers said the victim and the defendant knew each other almost six months before the sexual assault incident was discovered.

“The defendant visited her family, and the two were engaged, but her father decided to break the engagement shortly afterwards because he felt that the defendant was not fit for his daughter,” the court said.

Nevertheless, the two decided to meet at the defendant’s apartment where they engaged in sexual activities on numerous occasions, the court stated.

The relationship was exposed when the victim informed her father and he filed a complaint against him at the Family Protection Department, the court added.

The defendant contested his verdict via his lawyer claiming that the court based its ruling on contradictory testimonies by the victim.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the sentence.

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

“The defendant confessed to the sexual assault incident when he was arrested,” the higher court ruled.

Therefore, he deserves the punishment he received, the higher court added.

The Court of Cassation was headed by Judge Mahmoud Ebtoush and included judges Nayef Samarat, Mohammad Shreieri, Hammad Ghzawi and Mohammad Khashashneh.