Man charged with manslaughter of sister

AMMAN — The Criminal Court Prosecutor on Saturday charged a 30-year-old man with the manslaughter of his younger sister in Madaba over the weekend, official sources said.

The 26-year-old victim was reportedly strangled to death allegedly by her brother late Thursday night while at her family's home, a senior judicial source said.

"The suspect fled from his family's house shortly after committing the murder and hid at a relative's home," the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

However, he was arrested a few hours later after a special police task force located his whereabouts and "arrested him without any major incident", according to the senior judicial source.

In his initial testimony to investigators, the suspect claimed that "he was high on drugs and engaged in a heated argument with his sister that turned fatal".

"The suspect claimed that he pressed on his sister's neck with his hands following an argument resulting in her death by strangulation," the senior judicial source said.

The Criminal Court prosecutor questioned several of the suspect and victim's family members who said the "suspect was a trouble maker with a previous criminal record", the senior judicial source added.

The victim’s body was transported to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Al Bashir Hospital in Amman for autopsy, a second source told The Jordan Times.

According to the postmortem report, the cause of death was strangulation, the second source said.

"Forensic specialists also detected several bruises on the victim's hands, which indicated that she struggled hard and fought for her life," according to the second source.

The Criminal Court prosecutor ordered that blood samples and tissue samples be taken from both the suspect and the victim for further analysis, the second source said.

The suspect was ordered detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigations into the incident, the second source added.