Man handed 7 years for molesting teenage boy

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld a July 2022 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a 37-year-old man to seven years in prison after convicting him of molesting a teenage boy in Zarqa in 2021.

The court declared the defendant guilty of sexually assaulting the boy at the coffee shop where he worked on two different occasions.

The court handed the defendant the maximum punishment for the offence.

Court papers said that the victim was standing at the coffee shop door, smoking, when he “uttered several curses, which the defendant heard”.

The defendant threatened the victim by telling him that he “would tell his family that he heard his curses and saw him smoking unless he engaged in sexual activities with him,” the court papers said.

On the second sexual assault incident, the court maintained, the “defendant filmed the victim and kept the video clip in his mobile phone”.

 “The owner of the coffee shop happened to see the clip the following day, and immediately alerted the authorities,” the court transcripts said.

The victim’s family filed a complaint against the defendant at the Family Protection Department, the court stated

The defendant contested his verdict, and maintained his innocence.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the sentence.

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

The Court of Cassation was headed by Judge Mahmoud Ebtoush and included judges Majid Azab, Hayel Amr, Fawzi Nahar and Mohammad Shrari.