Man allegedly stabs wife to death in Amman hospital

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Tuesday levelled premeditated murder charges against a 32-year-old man who reportedly murdered his wife while at a government hospital in Amman earlier in the day, official sources said.

The 26-year-old victim received multiple stab wounds to different parts of her body, allegedly from her husband while at Al Bashir Hospital, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said.

“The suspect used a sharp weapon to murder his wife and he was immediately apprehended,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

A senior judicial source said that the couple had been “constantly quarrelling and they filed cases against each other at civil courts”.

“The couple had major problems and it seems that the husband had attacked and injured his wife recently,” the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

On Tuesday morning, the source maintained, the suspect “went to the hospital claiming to be checking on his wife who was about to undergo a surgery while at the Orthopaedic Unit,” the senior judicial source added.

A post-mortem conducted at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (NIFM) indicated that the victim received over “30 stab wounds to different parts of her body,” according to NIFM Director Raed Momani.

“Most of the stabs were focused on her heart and chest,” Momani told The Jordan Times.

The forensic expert added that the “physicians detected defence wounds on the victim’s hands”.

 The Criminal Court prosecutor will summon the victim’s family members and the suspect to learn more about the stabbing incident, according to the second official source.   

The suspect was ordered detained by the Criminal Court prosecution office for 15 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigation.

Tuesday’s crime is the second stabbing incident in the last 48 hours, the other of which involved a 53-year-old man in Zarqa reportedly stabbing his 53-year-old wife with a kitchen knife multiple times over a domestic dispute.

The Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office charged the husband, who reportedly called the police to inform them that he murdered his wife, with premeditated murder.

Initial investigations indicated that the couple “would often quarrel,” the second official source told The Jordan Times.