Man charged with premeditated murder of retired physician in Zarqa

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged a man with the premeditated murder of a retired physician in Zarqa last week, senior judicial sources said.

The victim was found murdered in his home in Zarqa in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told the press last week.

On Thursday, police announced that a team tasked to investigate the incident concluded that a man who was visiting the victim on the day of the murder was the prime suspect.

In his initial testimony to the police, the suspect claimed that he murdered the victim, who is in his early 60s, following “a heated argument”, a senior official source told The Jordan Times last week.

The suspect also confessed to “robbing the victim of around JD30 that was in his possession”, according to a senior official.

The Criminal Court prosecutor’s office is still questioning the suspect to learn more about the incident, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

“We are still investigating the incident and exploring other motives behind the incident,” the senior judicial source said.

Investigators have also not ruled out that the suspect was acting alone, the senior judicial source said.

“We are also examining the scene of the murder and questioning family members and witnesses to determine if the suspect acted alone,” the senior judicial source said.

Meanwhile, a senior medical source told The Jordan Times that a postmortem conducted on the victim’s body at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine over the weekend concluded that the victim died from a severe blow to the head.

“The victim received multiple blows to different parts of his body but the fatal blow that caused his death was the one that crushed his skull,” the senior medical source explained.

The Criminal Court prosecutor ordered that the suspect be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigations into the incident.