Court to issue ruling in oxygen outage case on December 5

AMMAN — The Amman Magistrates Court is scheduled to issue the ruling in the Salt oxygen outage case on December 5.

In a session held Thursday, defence attorneys presented their closing arguments before the court, wrapping up a nine-month long trial, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.  

In a written closing argument presented at the previous session, the Public Prosecution asked the court for a guilty verdict for the 13 defendants accused in the case. 

The oxygen outage at the New Salt Public Hospital claimed the lives of 10 patients in March. In early November, the Amman Court of First Instance’s prosecution asked the court to convict 13 defendants on all charges in the case.

Since the trial began last April, the court heard a total of 87 witnesses in the case, 66 of whom were prosecution witnesses and 21 were defence witnesses. 

Testifying in court were medical experts, medical examiners, health officials and former health minister Nathir Obeidat, who resigned following the incident.

In March of 2021, the Public Prosecution opened an investigation into an oxygen supply outage at the Salt government hospital, prompting the arrest of 13 Health Ministry officials. 

The Public Prosecution charged the 13 defendants with 10 counts of involuntary manslaughter, to which they pleaded "not guilty".