Man sentenced to death for killing doctor

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Sunday sentenced a 28-year-old man to death after convicting him of  murdering a paediatric surgeon near his home in Shafa Badran in May 2015.

Mohammad Abu Risheh, 43, who worked at Al Bashir Hospital and had five daughters, was fatally stabbed by the defendant while standing in front of his home on May 10, 2015.

The defendant stood motionless upon hearing his death sentence read by presiding Judge Awad Abu Jarad, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The court also sentenced a second man, who is the defendant’s relative, to two years in prison for assisting a wanted person to evade justice.

The court, which also comprised justices Ibrahim Abu Shafi and Lafi Abu Tayeh, ordered the defendant to pay JD150,000 in compensation to the victim’s family.

Court papers said the defendant held a grudge over the victim’s treatment of one of his daughters almost six months before the incident.

“The defendant had a scuffle with the victim over the treatment and since then he plotted to kill him,” the court maintained.

On the day of the murder, the defendant asked a relative to give him a lift to the doctor’s house without revealing his intentions, the court said.

“When the suspect arrived at the victim’s house, he saw him standing nearby and stabbed him one fatal time in the chest,” according to the court verdict.

The suspect left the area and police arrested him later after tracing the licence plate number of the car he was in.

Sunday’s verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.

The Jordan Medical Association has complained for years about assaults on doctors and medical staff. In 2013, 38 cases of assaults on medics were reported, and 19 cases were registered in the first three months of 2014.