Jordan News

The High Criminal Court called on the Court of Cassation to uphold the verdict issued against 3 people in the case of kidnapping and rape of women.

Earlier this month, the Criminal Court sentenced three men to prison terms of between 40 and 45 years after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting women in the kingdom in 2020.

Two of the three defendants were sentenced to 45 years in prison, while the third was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being found guilty of assault, robbery, sexual harassment and kidnapping five women.

The defendants were also convicted of attempting to kill a man who was accompanying one of the victims at the time of her abduction.

A senior judicial source said that the defendants were originally sentenced to 30 years in prison each, but “the court decided to increase the penalties for the charges for which the defendants were convicted due to the seriousness of their crimes.”

The judicial source added: “The Criminal Court decided to impose a strict punishment on the accused as a form of deterrence, because their actions pose a grave danger to individuals and society.”

Court papers said the three defendants, who are friends, decided to sexually assault the women and steal a car to accomplish their “evil deeds”.

According to the 120-page ruling, the defendants were wearing masks to cover their faces, and were approaching young men and women who were sitting in their cars and “pretending to be police officers or security personnel.”

The court stated that the defendants were asking the women to accompany them and beating the men who accompanied them in the cars.

Then, the three men were driving to different provinces, stopping the stolen car in secluded areas and “initiating the sexual assault of the victims,” ​​according to the court minutes.

The court added that the defendants were giving their victims a gallon of gasoline or water and asking them to “wash their genitals to erase any evidence.” After that, they drove their victims to a main road and left.

Court documents stated that the three defendants were arrested after several complaints by male victims who were accompanying the kidnapped women.

Court records stated that the authorities managed to locate the three suspects and arrested them.

The senior judicial source indicated that the three men confessed to assaulting seven women victims, but the prosecution was able to refer only 5 cases to court.

“Only five women filed complaints about incidents of sexual assault,” the judicial source said, and the court based its ruling on the DNA evidence of some female victims.

The judicial source added that the additional evidence included the identification of one of the perpetrators, whose mask fell during one of the assault incidents, in addition to the features of the accused that the victims recognized.

The Court of Cassation will automatically consider last week’s verdicts within the next 30 days.