Man sentenced to 8 years in prison for attempted murder

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a June Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to eight years in prison after convicting him of attempting to murder a man in Amman in January 2022.

The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of attempted murder on January 29 and handed him a 12-year prison term with hard labour.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to eight years because the victim dropped charges against the defendant.

Court papers said the victim was in the defendant’s house when an instant argument ensued.

"The defendant punched the victim in the face when the argument became heated," court documents said.

The defendant then grabbed a hunting knife and stabbed the defendant once in the chest, the court added.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital suffering from critical wounds to the chest but survived the stabbing incident due to medical intervention, the court maintained.

The defendant contested the ruling via his lawyer arguing that there were “legal errors in the investigation procedures”.

The prosecution, the lawyer argued, “depended on contradictory testimonies by the witnesses”, the court documents stated.

The Criminal Court’s attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the eight-year sentence.

The higher court ruled that the Criminal Court proceedings were accurate and that the defendant was given the appropriate punishment.

The Cassation Court bench comprised judges Mahmoud Ebtoush, Nayef Samarat, Hammad Ghzawi, Mohammad Shreiri and Mohammad Khashashneh.