Defendant handed death sentence for murdering female university student

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Monday sentenced a 23-year-old man to death for robbing and murdering a female university student in Zarqa in December 2013, judicial sources said.

The defendant was convicted of stabbing the victim, a Sharia student at Al al Bayt University, 37 times on different parts of her body with a knife in a bus in a terminal in Zarqa Governorate, 22km east of Amman, on December 3, 2013.

The court acquitted the defendant of attempted rape and molestation charges that were pressed against him by the Criminal Court prosecutor, “for lack of evidence”, a senior official source said.

The defendant fainted when presiding Judge Talal Aqrabawi read the verdict, according to his lawyer, Zahra Sharabati, and the judicial source.

“The defendant shouted that he was innocent and did not kill her and then fainted,” Sharabati told The Jordan Times.

Sharabati added that she plans to appeal the verdict at the Cassation Court.

Court papers said the defendant, who was employed at the National Electricity Power Company, wanted to develop an “innocent relationship to become an affair or marriage but she refused”. 

“The man was enraged that she rejected him and decided to take revenge, so he lured the victim to the bus and stabbed her repeatedly, took her mobile and fled,” a second judicial source told The Jordan Times.

However, the defendant retracted his confessions during court proceedings and claimed that he went to the bus to meet the victim and found her murdered, according to Sharabati.

He became confused, took her mobile and left, the lawyer added. 

The bus driver found the victim in the early morning hours of December 3.

Investigators traced the phone and calls made on it, which led them to the defendant.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Ramzi Nawayeseh had asked the tribunal, which also comprised judges Ayman Ghazawi and Ashraf Abdullah, to inflict the maximum punishment on the suspect.

Monday’s verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Cassation Court within the next 30 days.