Court upholds sentence in Amman molestation case

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a September Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to three years in prison after convicting him of molesting a teenage girl in Amman in early 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of molesting the 17-year-old girl in a rented apartment three times and handed him the maximum sentence.

Court papers said the victim met the defendant via Facebook and they then developed a relationship.

A few months after meeting online, the court maintained, the “defendant asked to see the victim and she agreed”.

“The victim’s family travelled on vacation and she decided to leave her family’s house to meet the defendant at a rented apartment,” according to the court transcripts.

The defendant and the victim stayed in the apartment for three days where he molested her, the court documents stated.

“The defendant then drove the victim back to her family’s home, but on the way she became ill and he had to take her to a hospital where the matter was exposed,” court papers added. 

The defendant had contested the ruling through his lawyer arguing that “he had no idea that the victim was under the age of 18 and that he loved her and wanted to marry her”.

However, the higher court rejected the defendant’s argument and ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendant and he deserved the verdict he received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Bassem Mubeidin, Yassin Abdullat and Hammad Ghzawi.