Cassation Court upholds acquittal in molestation case

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld an October Criminal Court ruling acquitting a father accused of molesting his five-year-old daughter in Amman in mid-2018. 

The Criminal Court declared the defendant not guilty of molesting his daughter citing a “lack of evidence”.

Court papers said the defendant had divorced the victim’s mother and the Sharia Court allowed him to see his daughter as stipulated by the law.

In one of the visits with his daughter, according to the prosecutor’s charge sheet, the defendant allegedly “molested his daughter and was showing her pornographic movies on his mobile”.

The prosecutor charge sheet also alleged that the victim’s mother “noticed that her daughter was behaving in a strange manner and decided to bring her to an expert who determined that her daughter was sexually assaulted by her father”.

However, the Criminal Court ruled that after examining the victim’s testimony “it was clear that there were contradictions and the child never mentioned the sexual assault when she was summoned for testimony at the court hearing”, according to court documents.

“The Criminal Court concluded that the victim’s mother made up the story because she had a custody battle with her estranged husband and was attempting to keep him away from her daughter,” court papers said.  

The Criminal Court attorney general’s office contested the acquittal of the defendant arguing that “the victim’s testimonies were accurate and there was enough evidence to implicate the defendant”.

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court proceedings were fair and the acquittal verdict was correct.

The court comprised former judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Naji Zu’bi, Majid Azab and Bassem Mubeidin.