17 February 2021 :

The Court of Cassation has overturned an October Criminal Court verdict, sentencing a man to death after convicting him of murdering his nephew in May 2019, the Jordan Times reported on 16 February 2021.
The Criminal Court declared the defendant guilty of stabbing the five-year-old boy to death on May 30 and handed him the capital punishment.
However, the higher court ruled that “the premeditated murder condition is not present in the case and the Criminal Court needs to revisit its ruling again to consider this factor”.
"It was clear to the court that the murder happened the minute the defendant spotted the victim, and he did not plan it," the higher court ruled.
The defendant's lawyer also argued that his client “did not plot the murder and that he stabbed the victim the minute he saw him,” according to court papers.
The lawyer also contended that there were "irregularities in the investigation procedures", according to the higher court.
“We decided to overturn the verdict and return the case to the Criminal Court to consider our verdict since the prosecution failed to provide any evidence that the crime was committed in a premeditated fashion,” the higher court stated.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Court attorney general asked the higher court to uphold the ruling arguing that the defendant deserved the verdict he had received.
Court papers said that one month before the incident, the victim’s father filed a complaint against the defendant at a police station because he beat up the victim.
"The defendant was upset about the action taken by his brother against him," court papers said.
On the day of the murder, the court maintained “the defendant saw the victim walking on the street and decided to harm him to revenge his brother’s legal actions against him".
“The defendant grabbed a knife and stabbed the victim multiple times on his back and chest,” the court added.
The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared dead on arrival, the court added.
The Cassation Court comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Fawzi Nahar, Hayel Amr, Majid Azab and Nayef Samarat.

12 January 2021 :

Jordan’s state security court sentenced a citizen to death on 12 January 2021 for the 2019 stabbing of eight people, four of them foreign tourists, at one of the kingdom’s ancient sites.
The victims, who included one Swiss and three Mexican tourists, all survived the November 2019 knife attack in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Jerash, some 50km (30 miles) north of the capital, Amman.
Mustafa Abu Ruwais, 24, was sentenced to “death by hanging for the terrorist knife attack on tourists,” the court said.
Ruwais, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was at the time of the attack a resident of the Souf camp in Jerash, which houses some 20,000 Palestinian refugees.
He was arrested immediately afterwards and charged with terrorism offences in January last year.
The Jordanian victims included a tour guide and a security officer who attempted to intervene.
According to court documents, two other men associated with Ruwais received prison sentences.
The three men became supporters of the ISIL (ISIS) group in 2019.
When Ruwais and one of the men tried and failed to join the group, the documents said, they planned to promote the organisation’s ideas by distributing 350 leaflets in Jerash promoting the armed group’s ideology.

18 October 2021 :

The Court of Cassation on 17 October 2021 upheld a June Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a man to death after convicting him of murdering his married sister in the Jordan Valley in October 2019.
The court declared the defendant guilty of the premeditated murder of his married sister while at her home on 30 October and handed him the death penalty.
Court documents said the defendant knew that “his sister was seeing other men while being married and that she had a bad reputation”.
The defendant decided to murder his sister “to cleanse his family’s honour”, according to court papers.
On one occasion two years before the incident, the defendant saw his sister “riding with a man in a bus and attempted to kill her but failed", court papers said.
On the day of the incident, the court maintained that the defendant headed to the victim’s home and cut off the electricity so that she would leave the house to check out the matter, but she did not.
The defendant then waited for two hours next to her window to spy on her, and then knocked on the door, court papers said.
The minute he saw his sister, the court added, the defendant fired four rounds striking her in the back, the court transcripts added.
The defendant, through his lawyer, contested the capital punishment verdict, arguing that his client should benefit from a reduction in penalty because he killed his sister “in a moment of rage to cleanse his family’s honour”.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general had asked the higher court to uphold the death sentence ruling, stating that the court abided by the proper legal procedures when sentencing the defendant.
The Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgement fell within the law; that the proceedings were proper and the sentence given was satisfactory.
"The defendant plotted his murder carefully and had prior knowledge about his sister’s bad behaviour and a fit of fury clause is not applicable in this case," the higher court ruled.
The Cassation Court judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat, Hammad Ghzawi and Qassem Dughmi.

28 September 2021 :

The Grand Criminal Court on 27 September 2021 sentenced a man to death by hanging for killing his mother with the help of his brother.
The brother was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The accused used a Kalashnikov to kill his mother, in addition to wounding his two sisters. The father, his third sister and his other brother managed to escape.
In the details of the case it was revealed that the defendants are in their twenties, both of whom are drug users and addicts. On the day of the crime they came to their father's house in order to fight with him for ongoing disputes between them.
A verbal altercation occurred between them, prompting their father to threaten them that he is going to inform the police about it.
Following that, the two tried to shoot their father with the Kalashnikov they had, but they were unable when their mother came and tried to stop them.
The father with the help of his wife took the weapon away from them and gave it to his youngest son. The son ran away out of the house with the weapon in his hands, however, one of the accused followed him and took the weapon from him.
The fight between them continued until the first accused fired shots and killed his mother.

08 July 2021 :

A man has been sentenced to death by hanging in Jordan for burning his wife to death, Gulf News reported on 2 July 2021.
The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict issued by the Grand Criminal Court, sentencing the husband to death by hanging for premeditated murder, in accordance with the provisions of Article 328/1 of the Penal Code.
The case dates back to August 2020 when the man poured diesel on his Lebanese wife, set her on fire and watched as she burnt to death.
The public bus driver admitted to committing the crime following a family dispute, sources close to the investigation said.
He then transported and abandoned the body in a different location.
The Prosecutor of the Grand Criminal Court, Sultan Al Shakhanbeh, along with a forensic medicine team, started the investigation by inspecting both crime scenes — where the victim was burned and where the body was found.
According to sources, the man contacted one of his relatives after killing his wife and told him about what happened. The relative immediately reported the crime to the Madaba police department.

18 March 2021 :

The State Security Court (SSC) on 17 March 2021 sentenced six men to death in the case of the 16-year-old boy, who was a victim of a brutal revenge attack in Zarqa in October last year.
Four other defendants standing in the case received prison terms ranging from 15 to one year in prison.
Seven other defendants were acquitted in the case on all charges for lack of evidence.
The 17 men, including one who is still at large and received the death penalty in absentia, were standing trial for cutting off the boy’s upper limbs and gouging out one of his eyes on 13 October in revenge for a murder committed by one of his relatives.
The defendants were standing trial at the SSC on charges forming a gang, attempted murder, causing permanent disability, kidnapping, indecent assault, carrying out a terrorist act and spreading fear among the public, carrying and possessing blunt instruments, carrying and possessing a firearm without a licence and resisting security forces.
The defence team had contested the SSC jurisdiction over the case during the initial stages of the trial.
Court papers said the victim was lured by the defendants to a deserted area in Zarqa where he was assaulted to avenge a crime that was committed by one of his relatives.
The SSC prosecutor Major Yousef Khreisat asked the court to inflict the maximum punishment on the defendants.
The SSC tribunal was headed by military Judge Lt. Col. Muwafaq Masaeed and included military Judge Lt. Col. Amer Halaseh and civilian judge Afif Khawaldeh.
The verdicts will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.
The incident sparked an outrage, sadness and fear among the Jordanian society and thousands took to social media to express their anger and disapproval of the incident, and called on the justice system to inflict the maximum punishment against the perpetrators.
His Majesty King Abdullah immediately issued directives to provide all necessary medical care to a 16-year-old boy, while Premier Bisher Khasawneh paid the victim a visit at the hospital to check on his well-being.

10 January 2021 :

The Court of Cassation has upheld a June Criminal Court ruling, sentencing a street vendor to death after convicting him of robbing and murdering his 72-year-old relative in Tafileh in October 2017, the Jordan Times reported on 7 January 2021.
The court declared the defendant guilty of the premeditated murder of the victim, a sheep merchant, after luring him to a deserted area in Qadisieh town with the intent of robbing him on 27 October, and handed him the death penalty.
A second defendant, who is military personnel, was tried separately at a military court on the same charges and received the death penalty.
Court documents said the defendant owned a coffee kiosk where the second defendant, the military personnel, would often visit.
"The two decided to rob the victim, who was their relative, because they knew he carried a lot of cash with him," court papers said.
On the day of the incident, the court said, the two defendants lured the victim to a deserted area where they struck him with a wooden stick and a rock on his head repeatedly.
The two then stabbed him multiple times on his chest to make sure that he was dead, court papers added.
"The two men searched the victim’s wallet and found JD409, which they split in half," court papers said.
They left the area and disposed of the wooden stick, the rock and the knife in several trash dumpsters, according to court papers.
The victim was reported missing by his family and his body was discovered almost a month later, the court transcripts said.
Upon reviewing surveillance footage of the area where the victim was last seen, investigators saw the victim riding in the vehicle of one of the defendants, the court papers said.
The defendant was summoned by police and he confessed to murdering the victim with the help of the second defendant, the court papers added.
The defendant, through his lawyer, contested the capital punishment, charging that the investigation procedures “were not carried out in accordance with the law” .
"The defendant confessed to murder charges without the presence of a lawyer," court transcripts said.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s attorney general had asked the higher court to uphold the death sentence ruling, stating that the court abided by the proper legal procedures when sentencing the defendant.
The Cassation Court ruled that the Criminal Court’s judgement fell within the law, that the proceedings were proper and the sentence given was satisfactory.
"Investigators asked the defendant if he wanted a lawyer to be present when he made his confessions and he refused," the higher court ruled.
Therefore, the higher court added, the investigation procedures are within the law.
The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Bassem Mubeidin, Hammad Ghzawi and Mohammad Khashashneh.