2 foreign nationals jailed for murder

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a June Criminal Court ruling to sentence two Egyptian men to 20 years in prison after convicting them of murdering their colleague in April 2019.

The court declared the defendants guilty of killing the 42-year-old victim with a brick in mid-April and handed them the maximum punishment.

Court papers said the defendants were friends because they were day labourers.

“The two defendants engaged in a heated argument few weeks before the incident and the victim broke the teeth of one of the men following a scuffle,” court papers said.

The defendants decided to take revenge and “rob the victim because they knew that he carried money on him all the time,” according to court documents.

On the day of the murder, the court maintained, the defendants lured the victim to a building that was under construction claiming that they had secured a day job for the victim.  

“The defendants started digging a hole and the victim joked that he felt he was going to kill someone and burry him in the hole,” the court documents said. 

The defendants immediately “struck the victim on his head with a wooden stick then struck him repeatedly with a brick causing his skull to be crushed,” court papers added.

“The defendants searched the victim and found JD850, which they split in half, and also took his mobile and left,” according to court papers.

The following day, one of the two defendants returned to the crime scene and poured cement on the hole, the court documents added.

However, the victim’s brother reported him missing and investigations led police to the two suspects, the court maintained.

Upon questioning the two, they “confessed and ushered investigators to the place where the body was buried,” the court papers said.

The defendants appealed the verdict charging that the prosecution office failed to provide any solid evidence that would implicate them, the court documents said.

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 Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Hammad Ghzawi, Mohammad Khashashneh, Fawzi Nahar and Ahmad Qatawneh.