AMMAN — In 2009, an Egyptian man working as a house guard and his two children drowned inside their home near Amman’s 7th Circle, after rain flooded his basement apartment. Eleven years later, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has yet to pay compensation for the man’s family despite a final court ruling.
اضافة اعلان
“Back in the year 2009, it rained heavily for hours. Rain flooded one of the apartments in a building located near the 7th Circle,” said Rateb Al-Nawaiseh, an attorney for the deceased’s family, in an interview with
Jordan News.
“It was the GAM’s fault. They had not checked on the sewage systems in the area. If they had, maybe this poor family would have survived.”
His wife and his third child, who was almost two years old at that time, were not at the apartment, Nawaiseh said.
“All his wife and child need is compensation¬ — their breadwinner passed away. Money will not bring him back, but it will at least help them survive life’s hardships.” The lawyer explained that in 2020, the court ordered the GAM to pay JD30,000 as compensation for the deceased’s heirs after it was found responsible for the drownings.
“The GAM said it could pay this huge amount and, in this case, it is our right to have the mayor of Amman’s car impounded — the government’s car,” he said. “I got the car’s number and I will request that it would be sold at an auction.”
“It is a moral, not only a legal, duty for the GAM to pay the fine. The deceased’s heirs are poor and they need this money,” said Nawaiseh.
Director of Legal Affairs at the GAM Hazaa Al-Majali told Jordan News that lawyers, in general, use “
seizure of assets” to pressure opponents to pay the compensation quickly.
“When this happens we usually pay the money and we solve the case at the time,” Majali said. “The
GAM cannot pay all the fines. Its budget does not allow it to do so.”
“The delay of paying the fine, especially in this case, is due to the huge pressures that face the GAM. It is not that it does not want to pay,” Majali claimed.
“Actually, (the GAM) cannot even escape from paying the fine; the court ordered it to pay.”
“Seizure decisions cause us (the GAM) some confusion,” Majali said. “We may not always be able to pay the fine at the moment. We always try to balance between the payments to solve all the problems and cases we face.”
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