Court upholds 10-year sentence in Balqa attempted murder case

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld a November Criminal Court’s ruling sentencing a man to 10 years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder a shop owner in Balqa Governorate in October 2017.

The court declared the 38-year-old defendant guilty of attempting to murder the victim following an argument over JD20 on October 20, and handed him the maximum sentence.

Court documents said the defendant went to the victim’s shop and asked him to lend him JD20, but the shop owner refused.

“The defendant grabbed a wooden stick, and attempted to beat up the victim who pushed him away,” according to court documents.

The victim kept pushing the defendant out of his shop and when “he turned his back, the defendant stabbed him in the waist with a switchblade”, according to court documents.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital and underwent surgery which saved his life, the court transcripts said.

The defendant contested his sentence through his lawyer, claiming that “the court failed to depend on witnesses who said the defendant had only a wooden stick with him and that there were faults in the court procedures”.

The Cassation Court ruled that the verdict was correct and that the defendant deserved the sentence he received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Majid Azab, Bassem Mubeidin and Saeed Mugheid.