Ammon News - AMMAN - Two men were charged with the premeditated murder of their female relatives in two separate incidents in Amman and Maan on Tuesday, official sources said.

In the first case, Criminal Prosecutor Ashraf Abdullah charged a 49-year-old man with the premeditated murder and molestation of his teenage daughter yesterday, senior sources said.

The suspect, a pickup driver, reportedly confessed to shooting his 16-year-old daughter six times on Monday at their home in an Amman neighbourhood as she was getting ready for school, claiming family honour as his motive.

“The suspect told investigators that his daughter said she was involved in an affair with a 43-year-old man and he killed her to cleanse his family’s honour,” a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

When Abdullah summoned the 43-year-old man for questioning, the source added, the man reportedly claimed that the victim informed him that her father “molested her on several occasions”.

“Abdullah confronted the father, who confessed to molesting his daughter 10 times,” the source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect said he decided to “kill his daughter to “solve the problem”, according to the source, who is close to the investigations.

“The suspect said he either had to kill himself or his daughter to cleanse his honour,” the source said.

On Monday morning, the source said, the victim was sitting in her brother’s room at the computer before heading off to school when her father dragged her into another room.

“The suspect drew a gun and fired six rounds at his daughter and then headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in, claiming family honour as his motive,” the source said.

The victim is survived by her parents and five siblings.

An autopsy conducted at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that she received six bullet wounds to the neck and chest and that she was sexually active.

The criminal prosecutor ordered the father to be detained for 15 days at a correctional centre pending further investigation.

Abdullah also ordered the 43-year-old man detained at a correctional facility for 15 day pending investigation into his alleged affair with the minor.

Maan teenager held

for killing sister

Also yesterday, Criminal Prosecutor Saleh Taleb charged a 19-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his younger sister in Maan and charged his brother, 26, and their 43-year-old mother with complicity in the murder.

The 19-year-old suspect allegedly confessed to strangling his younger sister last week in Maan to cleanse his family’s honour, according to an official source.

Initial investigations indicated that the victim left her family home often and was “involved in an illegitimate affair” before getting married, the source said.

Two months prior to her murder, the woman left her husband’s house. She was then divorced and returned to her family’s home, where her brothers and parents tied her up in chains to prevent her from leaving the house, the source added.

“The family tied her up in chains so that she would not leave the house and would only unchain the victim to allow her to eat and go to the toilet,” the source said.

But on December 4, the source added, the victim’s siblings “decided to murder their sister to get rid of her”.

“The suspect went to his sister’s room and choked her to death with his hands and then went to sleep,” the source said.

The following day, the source added, the family buried the victim without obtaining the government’s approval or observing religious burial rituals.

The police received a tip about the burial and the potential murder and ordered the body exhumed for autopsy, the source explained.

The criminal prosecutor charged the second brother and the mother “because they encouraged the main suspect to carry out the murder”, according to the source.

All three suspects were ordered detained at a correctional facility pending further investigation into the case.

The two murders bring the total reported number of women killed in so-called honour crimes in Jordan since the beginning of the year to 14.



By Rana Husseini/ Jordan Times