Court hears from prosecution witnesses in Salt Hospital case

Court hears from prosecution witnesses in Salt Hospital case

AMMAN “” The Amman Court of First Instance on Wednesday heard the testimony of several prosecution witnesses in the case of the oxygen outage at the New Salt Public Hospital, which resulted in the death of seven patients last month.

The defendants, including the hospital director and other employees, are standing trial in the case on seven counts of causing death by association and for violating articles 343 and 76 of the Penal Code.

On Tuesday, the court decided to release five of the 13 defendants from custody because the law stipulates that they cannot be detained for more than one month based on the misdemeanour charges they face.

The court is expected to release more defendants in the upcoming days since they have been detained for over a month, their lawyers told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

The defendants, who pleaded not guilty during their opening trial earlier this week, were tried via a TV feed as a precautionary health measure due to the pandemic.

Among the defendants standing trial were the secretary general of the Ministry of Health, assistant secretary general for Health and Technical Affairs, assistant secretary general for Services Affairs, and the director of the Biomedical Engineering Department.

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