By Rana Husseini

AMMAN - The Criminal Court has sentenced a 30-year-old man to five-years in prison after convicting him of beating his stepson to death on November 17, 2005.

The tribunal declared A. M. guilty of hitting the three-year-old with his hands following an argument with his wife at their home in Zarqa.

The court said the defendant often quarrelled with his wife about the presence of the victim and his sister in their house and in their lives.

On the day of the incident, the defendant had a heated argument with his wife, which ended with him beating the boy and throwing him on the floor, according to the court.

“The boy fainted so they poured water on his face, but he did not wake up so they rushed him to a nearby hospital where he died few days later of wounds sustained from the assault,” the court said.

The couple had claimed in hospital that the child fell, but government pathologists at the National Institute for Forensic Medicine determined that he was killed, according to the charge sheet.

“The pathologists detected several bruises on the child’s head, which indicated that the boy was hit several times on the head, contradicting the parents’ story that he fell,” the court said.

During his opening trial, the defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The court said it decided to amend the manslaughter charges to “beating to death”, because it “concluded that the defendant only intended to harm the child”.

The defendant’s actions only aimed at harming and not killing the toddler, the court ruled in its five-page verdict.

Since the defendant used his hands and not a weapon, it was evident that he had no intention of killing the child, the court added.

“The defendant was surprised when the child fainted and tried to help him regain consciousness by throwing water on his face, then rushed him to the hospital. It is an indication he did not intend to kill him,” the court said.

The tribunal comprised justices Omar Khleifat, Mohammad Abu Dalbouh and Hayel Amr.

The verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.