Police probe alleged drowning of newlywed woman

AMMAN — Authorities on Tuesday said they are investigating the alleged drowning of a newlywed woman in one of the Kingdom’s governorates on Monday.

The 46-year-old victim was found dead in a pond in the Jordan Valley after a person alerted the Civil Defence Department, a senior official source said.

“The body was taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine [NIFM] in Amman for an official autopsy after investigators suspected foul play,” the official source told The Jordan Times.

A post-mortem conducted by a team of pathologists indicated that the woman “died of drowning”, a senior medical source said.

“The forensic team did not find any signs of force or struggle on the victim’s body and blood and tissue samples were sent to the criminal lab for further analysis,” the medical source told The Jordan Times.

But a second source told The Jordan Times that the victim was detained few weeks before the incident by the administrative governor “for her own protection”.

“One week before the incident the victim was released after her family bailed her out to marry her to a relative,” the second source told The Jordan Times.

That is why, the second source added, “police decided to open an investigation into the incident”.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Tayseer Bani Khalid is currently investigating the incident, a senior judicial source said.

“Nothing is ruled out at this point in time, and Bani Khalid is currently waiting for criminal lab results on samples taken from the victim before issuing a final ruling on the cause of the death and whether there was foul play or not,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.