Court upholds death sentence for Zarqa murderer

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a March Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 23-year-old man to death for robbing and murdering a female university student in Zarqa in December 2013.

The convicted man stabbed the victim, a Sharia student at Al al Bayt University, 37 times with a knife. The murder took place at a bus terminal in Zarqa Governorate, 22km east of Amman, on December 3, 2013.

The court acquitted the defendant of attempted rape and molestation charges “for lack of evidence”.

Court papers said the man, who was employed at the National Electricity Power Company, worked as fare collector on buses on the Mafraq-Zarqa route for almost two years prior to the incident.

The victim used the bus route to go to university, which is how she met the convicted man. The two developed an “innocent relationship”, the court transcripts stated.

“The defendant wanted to marry the victim but she started to talk to him about a colleague of hers at the university, which enraged him…” the 11-page verdict said.

“The convict became suspicious and was constantly harassing and stalking her so she ended the innocent relationship with him… he decided to take revenge…” the court maintained. 

On the day of the murder, the defendant grabbed a kitchen knife and lured the victim onto a bus at 6:00am. He then stabbed the young woman repeatedly, took her mobile and fled, court papers said.

Investigators traced the phone, which led them to the man. He was arrested by police nine hours after the body was discovered, the court said.

However, the convict retracted his confessions during court proceedings and claimed that he went to the bus to meet the victim, only to find her dead, his lawyer, Zahra Sharabati, told The Jordan Times in March.

Confused, he took her mobile and left, she added. 

Sharabati appealed the April verdict, claiming that her client’s confessions were “extracted under duress after being subjected to four days of interrogation by investigators”.

She also argued that having the victim’s mobile “in the possession of the defendant and traces of DNA evidence belonging to her client under the woman’s right nails are not enough to tie him to the murder”.

But the Cassation Court, which issued its ruling a few months ago and recently allowed access to the documents, decided that the Criminal Court’s decision fell within the bounds of the law and that the proceedings were proper. The court sentenced the defendant to death. 

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mahmoud Ababneh, Basel Abu Anzeh, Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh and Hussein Sakaran.