20-year sentence for man who killed his ex-wife upheld

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a May Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to 20 years in prison after convicting him of murdering his ex-wife in December 2013.

The court declared the defendant guilty of running over his wife and handed him the maximum sentence.

The court ordered the defendant to pay JD62,000 in compensation for the victim’s family.

Court papers said the defendant and the victim were wed in 2008 and “shortly afterwards, marital problems started because the defendant was abusive”.

The victim asked for divorce as a result of the bad treatment, but he refused. He divorced her two years later, the court said in its verdict.

“The defendant was against the divorce and decided as a result to kill the victim in revenge. He made an attempt a few months before the incident by stabbing the victim while at the Sharia Court for a hearing over the custody of their daughter,” the court stated.

The victim and her family dropped charges against him “thinking that he would not commit such an action again”.

A few weeks before the murder, the court maintained, the defendant learnt that his ex-wife returned to college to study.

On December 3, the court said, the defendant “drove his vehicle to the street where his wife usually walks to college and ran her over with it”.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died almost a week later as a result of her wounds, the six-page court verdict said.

The Criminal Court attorney general contested the Criminal Court’s ruling of reducing the premeditated murder charges to manslaughter against the defendant stating that he deserves a tougher punishment.

“The defendant had often threatened to murder his wife and had good knowledge of her daily routine and route to her college.  It is clear that he plotted the murder,” the attorney general argued.

However, the higher court upheld the Criminal Court’s ruling, saying the Criminal Court prosecutor “failed to present enough evidence to prove that the murder was premeditated”.

“The Criminal Court ruling was sufficient and the defendant got what he deserved for his actions,” the higher court ruled.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised justices Mahmoud Ababneh, Basel Abu Anzeh, Mohammad Ibrahim, Mohammad Tarawneh and Daoud Tubeleh.