10-year jail sentence upheld for man who killed his sister

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a recent  Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 30-year-old man to 10 years in prison for murdering his sister in an Amman neighbourhood hours after she was released from prison in 2013 for reasons related to family honour.

The Criminal Court had declared the defendant guilty of stabbing his 25-year-old sister to death while at their home four hours after she was released from prison, and handed him a 20-year prison term.

However, the victim’s mother dropped charges against her son and the punishment was reduced to half.

The Criminal Court also acquitted the defendant’s 32-year-old brother and 62-year-old father of complicity in murder for lack of evidence. 

Court transcripts said the victim left her family’s home a few months before the incident, and was found by police and locked up in prison for her own safety.

On the day of the murder, November 12, 2013, the court maintained, the victim’s older brother bailed his sister out from the Jweideh Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre, and signed a guarantee that she would not be harmed.

But as soon as she arrived home, the defendant stabbed her repeatedly and then crushed her skull with an axe, according to the court.

The suspect then headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in, claiming that he killed his sister to cleanse his family’s honour and handed officers on duty the sharp tools he used in the murder, the court added.

The Cassation Court, which issued its ruling recently, said the Criminal Court’s verdict falls within the law and that the proceedings were proper.

The Cassation Court comprised judges Mahmoud Ababneh, Basil Abu Anzeh, Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh, and Dawoud Tubeleh.