Man sentenced to seven years for molesting teenage girl

AMMAN — The Cassation Court upheld a December 2022 Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to seven years in prison for molesting a teenage girl in Mafraq in October 2021.

The Criminal Court handed the defendant a seven-year prison term after convicting him of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl seven times in October.

Court documents said the defendant and the victim were neighbours and developed a relationship a few months before the incidents.

The two decided to meet alone in the defendant’s home, the court maintained.

“The defendant molested the teenage girl on several occasions,” the court stated.

The criminal court prosecutor determined in the charge sheet that the sexual assault incidents were seven based on the investigation procedures, according to court papers.

The matter was exposed a few weeks later and the victim’s family filed a complaint at the Family Protection Department, the court added.

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court’s ruling through his lawyer claiming that the “victim gave contradictory statements regarding the incident”.

The lawyer also asked that the defendant “was subjected to duress by investigators to confess to something he did not do”.

Meanwhile, The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the ruling.

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

“The defendant confessed willingly to law-enforcement officers about the sexual assault incidents,” the higher court ruled.

The Cassation Court comprised of judges Mahmoud Ebtoush, Fawzi Nahar, Hammad Ghzawi, Nayef Samarat and Mohamad Khashashneh.