Court hands man 4-year prison term for molesting minor in Mafraq

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a November 2017 Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to four years in prison after convicting him of molesting a teenage Syrian girl in Mafraq in April 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of molesting the 17-year-old girl in the town of Khaldieh and handed him the maximum sentence. 

Court papers said the defendant forced the victim to go with him to a house after seeing her in the street.

 “The defendant tore the victim's clothes and molested her while she begged him to leave her alone,” court transcripts said.

The defendant gave her new clothes and allowed her to talk to her family and she informed them that "she was abducted by the defendant", court papers said.

“The defendant was arrested and a sexual assault case was filed against him,” court papers added.

 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 teenager "went with the defendant willingly to his house and asked him to engage in sexual activities with her".

"The victim was the one who wanted the defendant to engage in sexual activities with her because she wanted to marry him, although her family was against it," court papers said. 

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

"The defendant confessed willingly to engaging in sexual activities with the minor and therefore deserves the punishment he received," the higher court ruled.

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