Man sentenced to death for murdering his sister; two others handed 15 years

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Thursday sentenced a 25-year-old man to death after convicting him of murdering his two sisters on a farm in Naour for reasons related to family honour in October 2016.

The tribunal also sentenced a second brother, 23, and the husband of one of the victims to 15-years in prison each, after convicting them of being an accessory to the double-murder of their siblings aged 34 and 27.

“The three were calm and made no reaction upon hearing their conviction verdicts in the courtroom,” a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Court papers said the 27-year-old victim “was engaged in an affair with [the] third defendant and became pregnant out of wedlock”.

The younger sister reportedly delivered a baby girl in June 2016, and “later married the 22-year-old father of her child and lived in an area that was unknown to her family and the defendants”, according to court documents.

Meanwhile, the court added that the older sister “would often leave the house without her family’s permission, and was detained by the administrative governor on several occasions, which angered the defendants”.

On October 15, court transcripts said the victim’s husband decided to inform the defendants about the whereabouts of their siblings, the court documents said.

The judicial source told The Jordan Times that it was “not clear to the court why the husband decided to expose the hiding place of his wife but since he knew that the possibility of them being killed was high, the court decided to consider him as an accomplice to the murders and handed him a high punishment”.

The court document added the two brothers headed to the farm based on the information provided by the victim’s husband.

“When they entered the room the 25-year-old defendant was met with his older sister who had come to visit her sibling and he immediately opened fire from a pump-action rifle, while his brother stood next to the door so that their sisters could not flee”, court transcripts said.

The older sister was killed after being shot five times in the head, back and shoulder, while the younger sister who hid behind a table, was hit twice in the thigh and died a few days later as a result of wounds she sustained from the shooting incident,” the court documents added.
 Thursday’s tribunal comprised of judges Ibrahim Abu Shama, Anwar Abu Eid and Tariq Rashid.

The verdicts will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.