41-year-old man allegedly stabs mother to death

AMMAN – A 41-year-old man was charged on Wednesday with premeditated murder in connection with the stabbing death of his mother while at his home in Amman earlier in the day, official sources said. 

The 59-year-old victim was reportedly stabbed by her son at dawn on Wednesday while at his home in North Marka neighbourhood, Police Spokesperson Col. Amer Sartawi said. 

“Police were called into the house and arrested the suspect and seized a sharp object,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

In his initial testimony to Criminal Court Prosecutor Ishaq Abu Awad, the suspect claimed to be “under the influence of drugs at the time of the stabbing incident”, a senior judicial source said. 

“The suspect claimed that he consumed illegal narcotics and had a heated argument with his mother,” the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect claimed that he grabbed a “kitchen knife and stabbed his mother repeatedly on her face and neck then he slit her throat”, according to the senior judicial source.

A second source said that the suspect’s wife took her children and went to her family’s house following marital disputes few weeks before the incident. 

The victim travelled from her hometown in Ajloun to Amman on Tuesday “to visit her son and help him with his housework”, the second source told The Jordan Times. 

The victim woke up early in the morning to pray and “it seems that she engaged in “a heated argument with her son that ended with her being murdered”, the source added. 

Abu Awad ordered that blood and tissue samples be taken from both the suspect and the victim and be sent to the criminal lab for further analysis, the senior judicial source said. 

The criminal court prosecutor also ordered crime scene investigators to send the knife seized at the house to the criminal lab for further testing, the judicial source added. 

An autopsy conducted by a team of pathologists, headed by Director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine Adnan Abas and included Omar Khatib and Rula Afaneh, indicated that the victim died of haemorrhagic shock caused by the stabbing, a senior medical source said. 

“Most of the stab wounds were centred around her face and neck,” the senior medical source said. 

The government forensic team also detected minor defence wounds on the victim’s hands, the senior medical source told The Jordan Times. 

The suspect was ordered detained for 15 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre by the criminal court prosecutor, pending further investigations into the incident, the senior judicial source said.