Court upholds nine-year sentence for repeat sex offender

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a March Criminal Court decision sentencing a repeat sex offender to nine years in prison for molesting a child in Zarqa in August 2018.

The Criminal Court handed the defendant an eight-year prison term after convicting him of molesting a 10-year-old girl on August 24, and handed him the maximum punishment.

The court decided to add an additional one year to the prison sentence “because the defendant was a repeat molester”.

Court documents said the victim was returning home and when she entered the building she lived in and the defendant followed her.

“The defendant grabbed the girl and molested her then asked her to play hide and seek with him,” court papers said.

The girl refused and escaped from his grip and went to inform her family about the incident. The family then filed a complaint against the man, court papers said.

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court ruling asking to be declared innocent, claiming that “the court relied only on the victim’s testimony, which was contradictory and the court failed to rely on solid evidence”.

However, the Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgement fell within the rule of law, that the proceedings were proper and that the sentence given was satisfactory.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat, Naji Zu’bi and Majid Azab.