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Cassation Court overturns verdict in 2013 murder

By Rana Husseini - Nov 12,2015 - Last updated at Nov 12,2015

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has overturned a February Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to 10 years in prison for murdering his brother in Madaba in 2013.

It ruled that the Criminal Court failed to check if the defendant committed the murder in a fit of fury.

Court papers said the victim was a drug addict and suffered from mental illness.

“The victim would constantly cause problems for his family and often threaten people when he was not on drugs,” the court documents said.

The defendant, along with another brother, had taken the victim to a rehabilitation centre for treatment on several occasions, the court added.

On July 10, according to the court, an argument ensued between the three brothers and they asked the victim to go on a trip to Madaba from Amman to calm him down.

“The argument became heated and the defendant pulled a gun and shot his brother once in the head,” the court said, adding that the two brothers left and the defendant reported his brother missing two days later.

On July 22, the victim’s body was discovered and the case was exposed.

The defendant claimed in court that he should benefit from Article 98 of the Penal Code because he committed the murder “in a moment of rage”, according to the verdict.

Article 98 stipulates that a person who commits a crime in a fit of fury caused by an unlawful act on the part of the victim benefits from a reduction in penalty.

However, the Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court did not examine whether the defendant “committed the murder in a moment of rage or if it was manslaughter”.

“The defendant had claimed that he committed his murder in a moment of rage but the Criminal Court did not indicate in its ruling if this issue was considered by the tribunal when they issued the verdict,” the five-page verdict said.

Therefore, the Cassation Court ruled, the verdict was overturned and returned to the Criminal Court to examine this specific factor.  

 

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mahmoud Ababneh, Basel Abu Anzeh, Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh and Hussein Sakran.

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