Court upholds jail term of man for raping boy

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a May 2018 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to four years in prison after convicting him of sexually assaulting a boy in Irbid in   December 2015

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of sodomising the 15-year-old boy on December 27 and handed him the maximum punishment.

 Court papers said the defendant knew the victim via Facebook and invited him over to his house.

 “The defendant took the victim to the roof of his house and informed him that he wanted to engage in sexual activities with him but the boy refused,” court documents said.

The defendant “forced the boy to undress and proceeded to sexually assault him”, according to court transcripts.

The boy managed to leave the defendant’s house and notified his family who alerted the authorities, court papers added.

The defendant, through his lawyer, contested the court’s ruling asking to be declared innocent “since the court relied only on the victim’s testimony and there were no DNA evidence to corroborate the allegations”.

 However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures and that the defendant deserved the verdict he received.

The Court of Cassation bench is comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Hamad Ghzawi and Nayef Samarat.