Khaberni - The Seventh Judicial Panel in the Minor Felony Court issued a judgment sentencing an employee of the Social Security Corporation and a foreign worker to 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment each, alongside obligating them to financial compensations totaling one million and 200 thousand dinars, after convicting them in a case of corruption and extensive job exploitation.
The decision comes after exhaustive investigations that uncovered manipulation suspicions in the compensation files for foreign workers at one of the branches established during the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at disbursing compensation entitlements to Jordanian and foreign workers enrolled in social security.
According to the case details, an experienced employee holding a responsible position within the institution, in cooperation with a foreign worker employed at a cafeteria belonging to the institution, targeted one-time compensation allocations for foreign workers.
According to the court decision, the defendants had agreed on attracting foreign worker names and disbursing funds to them illegally, in return for a portion of these amounts and personal financial benefits in a manner contrary to the law.
The investigations revealed that the operation lasted for years, during which personal numbers of social security enrollees were manipulated by making illegal changes to the data within the institution's digital system.
The defendants also resorted to forging official seals belonging to social security administrations, in addition to forging clearance forms required to complete disbursement transactions, enabling them to pass financial transactions illegitimately.
The case papers indicated that the manipulations continued for about four years, involving approximately three thousand foreign workers, without being detected during that period, as the operations were carried out between the defendants in an organized and repetitive manner.
According to the details, the case was discovered accidentally after a staff member noticed a discrepancy in the clearance data of one of the enrollees, leading to an investigation that later revealed the violations.
After verification, an internal audit committee was formed which revealed the extent of the financial excesses estimated at about 405 thousand dinars, after which the file was subsequently transferred to the public prosecutor of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission, who charged the defendants with several charges.
The charges included soliciting and accepting bribes, job exploitation, forgery, using forged official documents, unlawful entry into the digital system, and impersonating official seals of a governmental entity.
After hearing sessions that extended to dozens of witnesses from the prosecution and the defense, the Judicial Panel concluded convicting the main defendants of the crime of job exploitation and the charge of offering a bribe that was not accepted, with three other defendants found not guilty.
The court decided to sentence them to 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment with hard labor, and to impose joint financial fines and compensations totaling one million and 200 thousand dinars, with the decision being appealable
