Father, son charged in attempted murder of 23-year-old woman

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Sunday charged a 21-year-old man with attempted premeditated murder in connection with the stabbing of his married sister late Thursday night in an Amman neighbourhood, a senior judicial source said.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Ashraf Abdullah also charged the victim’s 43-year-old father with complicity in attempted premeditated murder and instigating an individual to commit a murder, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The 23-year-old victim, a mother of four children, was stabbed over eight times while at her family’s home in Jweideh suburb on November 17, Public Security Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times over the weekend.

The victim was rushed to hospital where she underwent several surgeries and remains in the ICU, the police official said.

“The victim’s condition is stable, but she remains in critical condition,” the judicial source.

In his initial testimony to police, the suspect claimed that he stabbed his sister because “she left her husband’s home without his permission”.

“The victim went missing for a few days and was found by the police, who handed her over to the administrative governor,” according to the source, who is close to the investigations.

On Thursday morning, the source maintained, the victim’s father “went to the administrative governor, signed a JD5,000 guarantee that he would not harm his daughter and took her back home”.

Later in the day, the source maintained. “The victim’s brother stabbed her in different parts of her body using knives in the house, including a knife that was still lodged in her back when she was rushed to hospital.”

The victim’s father was charged in 2001 of murdering his sister “because she left the house to go visit her children, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to half because his family dropped charges against him”, according to the judicial source.

The father was released in 2008 after serving his prison term, the source maintained, and “this is when the victim got married to her husband who is 15 years her senior”.

Both men were ordered detained by prosecutor Abdullah at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigations, the judicial source added.