Eight-year sentence upheld for killer of father and son

AMMAN — Two weeks after burying his murdered son, a father was fatally shot by his son’s killer during a car chase in Tafileh governorate, in mid May, 2012. 

The Cassation Court recently upheld a Criminal Court decision to sentence the killer to eight years in prison.  

A May 2016 Criminal Court ruling had found the convicted man guilty of shooting the victim with a machinegun during a car chase in Hassa town on May 19, 2012. 

He was initially sentenced to life in prison. However, the court immediately reduced the sentence to eight years because the victim’s family dropped the charges against him.

Court papers said that, two weeks before the father’s killing, the convicted man reportedly “murdered the son of the victim, but fled and did not turn himself in or follow tribal settlements, as was required of him”.

On the day of the incident, the court added, the victim and his other sons spotted the convicted man in a vehicle and attempted to stop him, but he fled.

“The defendant drew his gun and fired towards the victim’s vehicle, striking and killing him,” according to court documents.

The two sons who were in the vehicle with their father were not injured, the court added.  

The Criminal Court general attorney had asked the higher court to sentence the defendant to life in prison.

However, the Cassation Court, which issued its ruling earlier this year, ruled that the Criminal Court’s ruling falls within the law, that the proceedings were proper and that the sentence given was satisfactory.

The Court of Cassation comprised judges Basel Abu Anzeh, Mohammad Ibrahim Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh and Hussein Sakran.