Father handed death sentence for raping underage daughter

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Monday sentenced a 49-year-old father to death after convicting him of raping his minor daughter and transmitting HIV/AIDS to her.

The defendant stood motionless upon hearing the verdict read out by presiding Judge Fawzi Nahar, according to a senior judicial source.

“The defendant only said that he relies on God’s justice,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Court transcripts said the father raped his daughter when she was 12-years-old and repeated his actions on several occasions, including sexual molestations.

“The defendant began assaulting his daughter sexually in 2011, and in 2014 the mother saw her daughter with her husband in a suspicious position and the father promised not to repeat his actions,” the court said in its ruling.

However, the court maintained, “the father began assaulting his daughter again and she ran away from home and filed a complaint against him at the Family Protection Department affiliated with the Public Security Department, and he was arrested.”

The defendant denied sexually assaulting his daughter in court, but the tribunal depended on the victim’s testimony and “the fact that she contracted the disease recently”.

“The court heard experts’ testimony that the disease was not hereditary and that it was contracted to her through sexual intercourse.”

The defendant’s wife also carries the disease from her husband, according to the judicial source.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Jihad Dureidi had asked the court to inflict the maximum punishment on the defendant.

The tribunal also comprised judges Ibrahim Bawareed and Mohammad Zyoud.

The verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Cassation Court within the next 30 days.