Police arrest two suspects in Sunday bank robbery

AMMAN — Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of two men who reportedly robbed a bank in Amman at gunpoint on Sunday and escaped with only JD53.

 The two alleged robbers, including one who was disguised in women’s clothes, reportedly entered a bank in the Wadi Rimam area early on Sunday morning and demanded cash from the teller, escaping with JD53.

“A special investigative team was formed and managed to solve the incident and arrest one of the two suspects,” Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

Upon questioning the suspect, the police official added that “he confessed to being part of the robbery”.

“When his partner learned that he was arrested, he turned himself in to the authorities,” Sartawi added.

The suspect’s homes were searched and investigators found a gun, women’s clothes and dozens of bullets, according to a statement by the Public Security Department.

The two suspects were referred to the State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor for further questioning, according to the PSD statement.

The SSC has been handing sentences of a minimum of 15 years in prison to bank robbers because “attacks on financial establishments in the Kingdom endanger the safety of society, disturb public order, spread fear among citizens, endanger the lives of bank employees and jeopardise economic resources”.

Sunday’s robbery was the seventh incident targetting a local bank in the Kingdom since the beginning of the year. Police have managed to arrest the majority of the robbery suspects and retrieve most of the stolen cash.

In 2018, one money exchange shop and eight banks were targetted in Jordan. In some of these cases, the robbers were armed or used fake weapons.

Seven of the nine suspected robbers in 2018 have been arrested so far, while two suspects, who escaped with over JD105,000 in cash from two banks in the Wihdat neighbourhood and in Irbid, remain at large.