Man arrested for alleged murder of sister

AMMAN — Police on Thursday said they arrested a man who reportedly shot and killed his married sister in Irbid earlier in the day.

Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said that the authorities were alerted to a shooting incident involving a woman at her home in the early morning on Thursday in a house in west Irbid.

“The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, but died shortly after being admitted to hospital as a result of the gunshot wounds,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

The police official said that investigators became suspicious that “one of her brothers might be the perpetrator in his sister’s murder”.

Upon confronting the defendant, Sartawi maintained, the suspect claimed that he murdered his sister because of “family disputes”.

 The police official did not reveal any further details and said that investigators are currently questioning other family members in the incident.

Sartawi added that police also retrieved a weapon that was allegedly used by the suspect.

The weapon was sent to the criminal lab for a ballistic match, the police official added.

A post-mortem conducted at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine on Thursday indicated that the victim died of two bullets to different parts of her body, a senior medical source told The Jordan Times.

Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) issued a report on Sunday stating that 20 women have been killed in Jordan since the beginning of the year in gender-related violence incidents.

The institute pointed out that this year’s figures are three times higher than last year’s, with seven cases reported in the Kingdom during the same period of 2018.

SIGI called on the government to “increase prison punishments for perpetrators of crimes that target women and children”.