Mobile shop owner charged with manslaughter of Jordanian-Filipina

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged a 27-year-old Jordanian mobile shop owner with the manslaughter of a Jordanian-Filipina in the capital on Thursday, according to official sources.

The 47-year-old woman, a mother of two, was found dead in her apartment near the 3rd Circle in Jabal Amman, according to Public Security Department Spokesperson Maj. Amer Sartawi.

The victim’s body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (NIFM) for an autopsy, where pathologists detected “strangulation marks on her neck and bruises on her head”, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

“It seemed at first that she died of natural causes but pathologists at NIFM had a different opinion and determined that she was murdered,” the source said.

Police were notified of the incident and immediately launched an investigation, according to the judicial source.

“Investigators checked the victim’s mobile and traced the last call, which led them to the suspect, who was summoned for questioning,” he added.

The suspect, who was married three months ago, confessed to murdering the victim following “an argument and a scuffle”.

In his initial testimony to police and Criminal Court Prosecutor Awad Hiari, the suspect claimed he knew the victim for a long time because she used to buy mobile phones from him and sell them to her compatriots, according to the judicial source.

Hiari, who is handling the case, ordered that blood, tissue and other samples taken from the victim be sent to the crime lab for further analysis, a second source told The Jordan Times.

The victim, who has been residing in Jordan for over 20 years, was married to a Jordanian and they had two sons, according to the second source.

“The couple were divorced almost 15 years ago and the two sons were residing in a different governorate,” the second source said.

An official at the embassy of the Philippines in Amman told The Jordan Times on Saturday that “the Jordanian authorities are closely following up on the case.”

Hiari issued orders for the suspect to be detained for 15 days at the Jweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre pending further investigation into the incident.