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Jordan: Death for man guilty of raping, killing Syrian child

October 18, 2017 at 11:04 am

The Supreme Criminal Court in Amman yesterday sentenced a Jordanian man to death for raping and murdering a seven-year-old Syrian child early this year, Jordanian news agency Petra reported.

Petra said the rapist, who is 27 years old, took the child to an abandoned house in the capital city of Amman’s Jabal Al-Nuzha district, sexually assaulted him and took his life in a gruesome crime.

He was arrested shortly after, the news agency said.

Syrian and Jordanian activists had demanded the maximum punishment against him.

There are 654,582 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, however the number of Syrians in the country is expected to be much higher as many live in cities and are not registered by the UNHCR, while others are awaiting registration.

Read:Man executed for rape and murder of toddler in Yemen

Jordan, which shares a 375 kilometre long border with Syria, has the biggest Syrian refugee camp, Zaatari, in the north of the country.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said in a report that the Jordanian authorities have been summarily deporting Syrian refugees, including collective expulsions of large families.

Refugees are not being given a meaningful chance to challenge their removal and Jordan has not assessed their need for international protection, the rights group said.