The Amman Criminal Court added a new death case to the case file of the Oxygen Depletion of Al-Hussein Governmental Hospital in Salt – the Al-Salt Hospital case – in mid-March, bringing the number of deaths to 10 Jordanian citizens.

Today, Thursday, the court resumed its public sessions, headed by Judge Dr. Uday Al-Fraihat; to hear the case after two months of its suspension; Because of the judicial recess, its 28th session was held and followed by the Jordan News Agency (Petra), and the defense attorneys for the 13 defendants, who were released by the court after their 30-day detention period, were attended. During the session, the court heard two experts in the case, a doctor working at the University of Jordan hospital specializing in oxygen, and a forensic doctor.

The court began the trial sessions in the case last April, and has so far heard 49 witnesses presented by the Public Prosecution, including 4 forensic doctors and two experts, and 7 experts are scheduled to be heard in the upcoming sessions, bringing the total number of witnesses to 66.

The former Minister of Health, Nazir Obeidat, testified in the case before the Amman Penal Magistrate’s Court, in a previous session, in which he confirmed that one of the oxygen tanks was full two days before the accident and the other was 75 percent capacity.
He added that employees at the Ministry’s center are not directly responsible for filling and depleting oxygen from hospitals, and that there are employees appointed for this job who report to the hospital administration.

It was not possible for the court to hear the testimony of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health for Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases and the former official in charge of the Corona file, Dr. Wael Hayajneh, in the case, due to his presence outside the country, and decided to recite his testimony taken with the former Public Prosecutor. The right to discuss it upon his return to the country.

The tanks of Al-Hussein Governmental Hospital in Salt ran out of oxygen in mid-March and caused the death of 10 Jordanians. The Public Prosecution moved to investigate the case and arrested 13 people, including officials in the Ministry of Health.

The defendants were charged with jointly causing death, contrary to the provisions of Articles 343 and 76 of the Penal Code bis 10 times, but when they were asked by the court about the accusation against them, they replied that they were not guilty.