Man gets 20-year prison sentence for killing friend

AMMAN —  The Court of Cassation has upheld a December Criminal Court decision to sentence a 28-year-old man to 20 years in prison after convicting him of killing his friend in Amman in August 2015.

The Criminal Court handed the defendant the maximum sentence after convicting him of shooting and killing his friend on August 11 while emptying his gun.

Court documents said the defendant and the victim were old-time friends.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained, the defendant contacted the victim and asked him to go for a ride with him.

On the way, court documents maintained, the defendant “saw a man in the street with whom he had constant feuds”.

The defendant pulled a gun and fired one shot in the air but the gun jammed, according to court papers.  

The defendant pointed the gun towards the victim, who was in the driver’s seat, and attempted to remove the jammed bullet “but the gun was fired and the bullet struck the victim in the chest”, according to court papers.

The defendant fled the scene and hid the weapon in a secluded area, court documents said.

Meanwhile, the victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died shortly afterwards, court papers said.

The defendant was arrested shortly after the shooting incident and “ushered police to the place where he hid the gun used in the shooting incident”, court transcripts added.

The victim's family members refused to drop charges against the defendant, the court papers added.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general had asked the higher court to uphold the sentence against the defendant, stating that the court had abided by the proper legal procedures when sentencing the defendant.

The defendant, through his lawyer, contested the court’s ruling arguing that he “should benefit from a reduction in penalty because he had no intention of killing the victim”.

“The bullet was accidentally discharged from the defendant’s gun and it struck and killed the victim. There was no intention to end his life by my client,” the lawyer argued.

However, the Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgement fell within the law, that the proceedings were proper and that the sentence given was satisfactory.

“The defendant realised the dangerous act of pointing a loaded gun towards an individual and was not careful enough when handling his weapon and his actions ended in killing a human being," the Court of Cassation ruled.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Majid Azab, Hamad Ghzawi and Bassim Mubeidin.