Siblings charged with murder of sister, her husband’s other wife

AMMAN — Two men were charged with premeditated murder on Saturday in connection with the shooting death of their married, pregnant sister and her husband’s other wife in Balqa Governorate last week.

The two suspects, aged 22 and 28, were formally charged by Criminal Court Prosecutor Omar Hiyari with two counts of premeditated murder for the shooting that occurred Thursday night, a senior judicial source said.

The two victims were in the backyard of their home picking olives when the two brothers reportedly showed up from behind the trees and started shooting at their 27-year-old sister, added the source, who is close to the investigation.

“The two brothers only intended to kill their sister and the second woman was killed by mistake,” the source told The Jordan Times.

The suspects then fled the scene to an unknown destination and police deployed checkpoints in various parts of Balqa, 35km northwest of Amman, to apprehend them.

Authorities found one man hiding in a deserted area and arrested him, while the second suspect turned himself in shortly afterwards, according to the source.

In their initial testimony to police, the suspects said they “murdered their sibling to cleanse their family’s honour because she was involved in an illegitimate affair three months prior to the incident”.

The victim married the man with whom she was having an affair to avoid a scandal, but her family was still not pleased, the source said.

“The neighbours and relatives of the victim’s family kept talking about the incident and how their daughter tarnished their honour and reputation, so they decided to kill her to cleanse their honour,” the source explained.

On Thursday, the source continued, the two brothers “armed themselves with two guns and headed to the victims’ home and hid behind the olive trees”.

An autopsy conducted by pathologists Azzam Haddad and Hussein Abul Samen on Thursday revealed that the sister died of six gunshot wounds to the chest, head and back.  She was three-months pregnant.

The second victim, aged 50, died of a gunshot wound to the back, the source said.

Hiyari issued orders for the two suspects, a shepherd and a restaurant employee, to be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigation into the incident.