10-year jail term upheld for man who murdered ex-wife with pantyhose

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a May Criminal Court verdict sentencing a 45-year-old man to 10 years in prison after convicting him of murdering his ex-wife over an alimony feud in an Amman neighbourhood in October 2016.

The court declared the defendant, a street vendor, guilty of murdering his ex-wife, 36, using her own pantyhose on October 6, and handed him a 20 year prison term.

However, the court immediately decided to reduce the sentence to half because the victim’s family dropped charges against the defendant.

Court papers said that the couple had been divorced since 2015 and that the defendant would visit his children at their mother’s house twice a month.

On the day of the incident, the court maintained, the defendant went to his ex-wife’s house to see their three children, the court documents said.

“The two argued again over the JD190 alimony the defendant had to pay for his wife and children, and the situation became heated,” the court documents continued.

“The defendant headed to the laundry room, grabbed one of the victim’s pantyhose and kept pulling on the victim’s neck with it for around 20 minutes until he made sure she was dead,” court papers added.

The defendant placed his “ex-wife’s lifeless body on the bed, left the house and went back to his house to stay with his new wife”, the court added.

He was arrested by authorities later in the day and confessed to the incident.

The higher court said it relied on witnesses’ statements, including her children, who testified that he was the last to be seen with her.  The Court of Cassation also depended on the defendant’s own confession.

The Court of Cassation tribunal comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Naji Zubi, Daoud Tubelieh and Mohammad Tarawneh.