Woman handed life in prison for torturing, murdering child

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March Criminal Court ruling sentencing a Filipino woman to life in prison after convicting her of torturing and murdering a Filipino child in Amman in September 2020. 

The court declared the defendant guilty of beating, torturing and murdering the two-year-old child on September 7 while in her care, and handed her the maximum sentence. 

Court papers said that the victim’s mother worked as a domestic helper, and kept her child in the defendant’s care.

While in her care, the court maintained, the defendant would often beat the child.

On the day of the murder, “the defendant beat the child with a blunt object on different parts of her body,” the court added.

“The defendant noticed that the child was not breathing, so she tried to revive her, but she was already dead,” the court papers added.

The post-mortem report indicated that the victim died of internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma, according to the court documents. 

The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling through her lawyers, asserting that “the prosecution failed to provide solid evidence that would implicate her in the murder”.

“The prosecution also did not present any weapon in the case to tie the death to our client,” the lawyers argued.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s prosecutor asked the higher court to uphold the ruling.

However, the higher court ruled that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedure when sentencing and the defendant deserves the verdict she received. 

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Hayel Amr, Fawzi Nahar, Ibrahim Abu Shamma and Majid Azab.