Man handed 8-year jail term for attempted murder

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March 2022 Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to eight years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder a man in a street fight in Zarqa in April 2020.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of attempting to murder a 25-year-old man on April 23. The defendant was handed a 12-year prison term.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to eight years because the victim dropped the charges against the defendant.

Court papers said that the victim and the defendant were walking in the street in the Wadi Hajar area when an argument broke out between the two.

Bystanders interfered and separated the individuals, the court papers added.

However, "the defendant followed the victim and pulled out a knife," the court documents said.

The two got into a scuffle that resulted in the defendant stabbing the victim once in the stomach, the court added.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital and survived the stabbing, the court maintained.

The defendant contested the ruling via his lawyer, arguing that there were “legal errors in the investigation procedures”.

“My client should be charged with assault because he had no intention of killing the defendant,” the lawyer argued, according to court documents.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the eight-year sentence.

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

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Hayel Amr, Fawzi Nahar, Qassem Dughmi and Majid Azab.