Court upholds 2019 molestation conviction

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an October 2019 Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to eight years in prison after convicting him of molesting a teenage boy in 2018.

The court declared the defendant guilty of molesting the seventeen-year-old boy in a deserted house on December 29 and handed him the maximum sentence.

Court papers said victim was walking in the street when he met with the defendant who drew a gun and forced him to go with him to a deserted house. 

“The defendant molested the child and decided to let him go," court transcripts said.

The victim returned home and notified his family who alerted the authorities, court papers added.

The court said it relied on DNA evidence collected from the victim’s clothes, which tied him to the sexual assault incident.

The defence lawyer contested the ruling and asked the court to declare his client innocent.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the sentence against the defendant "because the punishment he received was proper".

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

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Majed Azab, Yassin Abdullat and Saeed Mugheid.