Cassation Court upholds 10-year sentence for man who murdered wife

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a November Criminal Court decision to sentence a 44-year-old man to 10 years in prison after convicting him of murdering his wife following a domestic dispute in Mafraq in August 2015.

The Criminal Court first handed the man a 20-year prison term after convicting him of shooting his 30-year-old wife with a pump-action rifle following a fight at their Mafraq home, 80km northeast of Amman, on August 15.

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

The tribunal also amended the original charges brought against him by the criminal court prosecutor, from premeditated murder to manslaughter.

 Court papers said that the victim and the convicted man had been married for 13 years and occasionally faced marital problems. They had three children aged 11, eight and four.

“The victim would often return to her family’s house after heated arguments with her husband,” the court said.

On the day of the incident, the court added, the husband and the victim were engaged in a heated argument and he beat her up.

“The defendant then grabbed his pump-action rifle and shot his wife once in the stomach,” according to the 10-page court verdict.

He then took her lifeless body in his pickup truck and dumped it in front of Mafraq Government Hospital and drove off, according to the court.

The man was arrested by police later in the day based on eye-witness accounts and information on his vehicle’s licence plate, the court added.

The convicted man had contested the ruling, claiming that “the bullet was discharged accidently while the two scuffled and the victim killed herself”.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court general attorney also asked the higher court to uphold the original verdict.

The Cassation Court, which issued its ruling late last month, ruled that the Criminal Court’s ruling falls within the law, that the proceedings were proper and that the sentence given was satisfactory.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Mohammad Tarawneh, Daoud Tubeileh and Basem Mubeidin.