Man sentenced to two years in prison for molesting another man

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to two years in prison after convicting him of sexually assaulting a man in Amman in May 2016.

The court initially handed the defendant a four-year prison term after convicting him of molesting a man who was 23 at the time of the incident on May 10.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence by half because the victim dropped charges against the defendant.

Court papers said the defendant lured the victim to an empty apartment and forced him to undress.

“The defendant took photos of the victim while he was naked and threatened to expose him if he did not sign cheques in his name,” court papers stated.

Fearing a scandal, the court maintained, the victim signed some cheques in the name of the defendant and left.

The following day he filed a complaint against him, the court stated.

Upon searching the defendant’s apartment, the court added, “police found several cheques signed by the victim in his name”.

The Criminal Court considered the action of taking photos of a naked person and threatening to expose him as an act of molestation.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the sentence "because the punishment he received was proper".

The defence, meanwhile, asked the court to acquit his client because "the Criminal Court relied only on weak evidence when issuing the sentence".

The defence also argued that the victim provided contradictory testimonies in front of officials and, therefore, "his testimony should be disregarded, and my client should be declared innocent of the charges".

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court proceedings were accurate and that the defendant was given the appropriate punishment.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Bassem Mubeidin, Hammad Ghzawi, Nayef Samarat and Ahmad Qatawneh.