Cassation Court upholds 4-year sentences for brothers spreading terrorist ideology

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March 2022 State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing two brothers to four years in prison each after convicting them of spreading terrorist ideology through social media in Jordan.

The defendants were convicted of promoting Daesh ideology to gain more sympathisers through social media and were handed eight-year and six-year imprisonment terms, respectively.

However, the court decided to reduce their prison term to four years each in prison to give them a second chance in life.

Court documents said the defendants adopted takfiri ideology in 2017 after monitoring the Daesh group’s activities on social media.

“The defendants were convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia and they decided to spread its ideology using social media pages,” according to court papers.

The two brothers also headed to a public park during the lockdown in an Amman neighbourhood and took advantage that no one was at the park to draw statements on the ground “stating that Daesh is there to stay and spread”, court transcripts said.

The two defendants also attempted to join the terror group and decided to sell their vehicles, the court said.

However, the two siblings were arrested by security forces in November 2021, court papers added.

The SSC general prosecutor asked the higher court to uphold the sentence, stating the SSC had followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendants.

The defendants contested the SSC ruling through their lawyers, claiming that “they were subjected to torture and duress”.

The lawyers also charged that the SSC prosecutor “failed to present any other solid evidence that would implicate their clients with the charges”.

However, the higher court ruled that the SSC had followed the proper procedures and that the defendants deserved the verdicts they had received.

“It was clear that the defendants confessed willingly to their desire to be part of the terror group and the authorities’ investigation procedures were correct and within the law,” the Court of Cassation said.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Qassem Dughmi, Nayef Samarat and Hammad Ghzawi.