Man sentenced to prison for tricking woman into forgery

The Amman Grand Criminal Court has sentenced a man to three years of hard labor after he used a fake marriage contract to deceive a woman into believing she was legally married to him.

Not content with the fake marriage contract, the man also claimed that he would arrange identity cards and passports for her and her three siblings after securing their Jordanian citizenship.

The case dates back to 2023, when the defendant rekindled a relationship with the complainant that had begun over the phone five years earlier. Although he knew that the complainant did not have an identity card, which would prevent a legal marriage, he persuaded her to agree to marry him.

According to the court’s findings, the accused made the complainant undergo the medical examination necessary for the marriage, pretended to have arranged the marriage in the Sharia court, and even carried out some procedures to make her believe that he was her marriage carried out.

He later informed her that the contract could not be fulfilled without an ID card.

The defendant also informed the complainant that he would ensure that she and her siblings received an identity card and a passport after he had acquired Jordanian citizenship for them.

The court found that the accused had sent a picture of a fake marriage contract to the complainant via WhatsApp, which led her to mistakenly believe that she had become his wife from that moment. The complainant believed his claims and accompanied him to a furnished apartment where he performed sexual acts on her before leaving the apartment.

He then gave her an identity card made out in her name, claiming he had obtained it for her, along with a document resembling a marriage certificate issued by a Sharia judge and birth certificates of her siblings.

The complainant became suspicious of the accused and after consulting with the Civil Registration and Passport Office, she was informed that the documents were forged. A technical investigation confirmed that the models and documents were defective and counterfeit.

The court’s decision revealed that the defendant had taken money from the complainant and her mother, claiming it was intended for the fees and costs of obtaining these documents from the relevant authorities. The defendant had lied and taken no actual steps to obtain these documents, which did not exist.

The court convicted the defendant of sexual assault and forgery of documents during a public meeting and also found him guilty of fraud and misuse of the seal of a public administration for unlawful purposes.