Taxi driver convicted of hit and run has sentence upheld

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld a May Criminal Court ruling sentencing a taxi driver to 22 years in prison after convicting him of murdering a man who refused the fair in Amman in October 2015.

 The court originally declared the defendant guilty of killing Amr Hassan, 34, on October 31 with his vehicle and handed him a 20-year prison sentence.

 However, the court decided to increase his sentence by two years because he was a repeat offender. According to the court documents, he had been convicted of theft two years prior to the incident.

 Court documents said the victim was in the Sports City area and wanted to return home so he waved for a taxi and the defendant pulled over and picked him up.

On the way, the court added, Hassan noticed that the defendant had not started the metre, so he asked him for the amount of fair he expected and the taxi driver told him it was JD3.

“The victim decided that the requested amount was high and asked the taxi driver to pull over and he descended from the taxi without paying him which angered the defendant,” court documents said. 

The defendant drove quickly towards Hassan and struck him with his vehicle, then sped off, according to court papers, which added that the victim was rushed to hospital but declared dead on arrival.

 The following day, the defendant crashed his vehicle into another car “to cover up for the accident that killed Hassan a day earlier and informed the owner of the taxi”.

 However, “police arrested the defendant after comparing the parts left at the crime scene with his vehicle and examined the records of the GPS that were installed in the taxi, which indicated that he was in the area where the crime occurred”, according to court documents.

The authorities also relied on blood samples found on the taxi driven by the defendant, which matched that of the victim and relied on camera footage from a nearby mall, which recorded the entire accident.

 The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling charging that the prosecution’s witnesses provided “inconsistent testimonies”.

However, the Court of Cassation rejected his claims and ruled that the Criminal Court’s ruling was accurate and the defendant deserved the punishment he received. 

The Court of Cassation was comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Saeed Mugheid, Bassem Mubeidin and Naji Zubi.