Court of Cassation upholds sentence for man accused of molestation

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld a May Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to eight years in prison for molesting a child in Amman last February.

The defendant was convicted of molesting an 11-year-old girl on February 11 and handed him the maximum punishment.

Court papers said that the victim was walking in the street when the defendant, who was sitting in his pickup truck, stopped her “and asked for her help to write a sentence claiming not to know how to write”. 

“The victim agreed and while writing the information he gave her on a piece of paper he descended from the truck and stood next to her,” according to court transcripts

The defendant suddenly “pulled down her pants and placed his hands on her private parts”, the court added.

The victim immediately pulled up her pants and ran away from the defendant to inform her mother who immediately alerted the authorities, the court stated.

The victim was able to pinpoint the defendant in a police line-up and was also able to identify the pickup truck, court transcripts added. 

The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling through his lawyer, asking to be declared innocent and argued that the “victim’s testimony was contradictory and he is too old to be molesting a child who is the age of his granddaughters”.
 However, the Cassation Court ruled that the verdict was correct and the defendant deserved the ruling he received.

The Cassation Court comprised judges Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh, Naji Zu’bi, Saeed Mugheid and Hammad Ghzawi.