20-year sentence upheld for man who stabbed sister to death, prevented help to reach her

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an April Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 26-year-old man to 20 years in prison after convicting him of murdering his older sister for reasons related to so-called family honour in Amman in January 2017.

The tribunal first handed the defendant the death penalty last week after convicting him of the premeditated murder of his 39-year-old divorced sister in front of a private hospital near the University of Jordan on January 13.

However, the tribunal immediately reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison because the victim’s parents dropped charges against the defendant.

Court documents said the victim was divorced almost one week after she was married and lived alone for over a year before her death.

The defendant claimed that his sister was “behaving in an immoral manner and he constantly told his mother that he planned to kill his sister if he ever sees her again”, according to court papers.

“When the defendant learned that his sibling was seeing their mother occasionally he convinced her to meet up with his sister to convince her to return home. But in reality he wanted to kill her,” according to court documents.

One day before the murder, the defendant learnt that his sister contacted her mother, wishing to see her, so he grabbed a knife and accompanied the mother to the rendezvous, the court maintained.

“When he saw his sibling, he had a quick chat with her, and then pulled a knife and a switchblade and stabbed her repeatedly with the sharp weapons,” the court stated, adding that the suspect then “stood next to his sister’s body wielding a knife and asking people to stay away”.

“This is my sister and this is a matter of family honour. Stay away everyone and let her bleed to death’,” the court maintained.

The suspect then turned to his mother “who was shouting and asking for people’s help and told her: ‘Forgive me mom this thing should happen. It is just a dog that died”.

The suspect then waited for police to arrive while smoking a cigarette and turned himself in, claiming “family honour” as his motive, the court documents said.

The mother, who attempted to stop the defendant, testified in court that “her daughter was involved in immoral relationships almost five years ago”, the judicial source said.

She added that she had no knowledge of her son’s intentions to murder her daughter, the judicial source added.

The defendant, through his lawyer, contested the Criminal Court’s ruling charging that he “should benefit from a reduction in penalty because he committed the murder in a moment of rage to defend his family’s honour”.

“The victim brought shame and disgrace to the defendant because she went out with a lot of men and they had obscene pictures of her that people in his neighbourhood saw,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer added in the court transcripts: “The victim ran a prostitution house and was living alone and the defendant had not seen her for over a year.”

“The defendant got enraged when he saw his sister after this long period and killed her with a knife that he carries on him always. He never plotted the murder,” the court documents quoted the lawyer argument as saying.

However, the higher court dismissed his claims stating that “he had prior knowledge of his sister’s alleged immoral behaviour, so he does not benefit from the fit of fury clause”.

In addition, the Court of Cassation added that the defendant “was in possession of two knives when he stabbed her, which means he came with the intention of murdering her and he also prevented people from helping her”.

“The Criminal Court followed the proper proceedings when sentencing the defendant deserves the verdict he received,” the Cassation Court ruled. 

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin Abdullat, Bassim Mubeidin and Saeed Mugheith.