Cassation Court overturns ruling in double homicide, attempted murder case

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has overturned a Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 30-year-old man to life in prison after convicting him of murdering his wife and brother-in-law in Zarqa in April 2013.

The Criminal Court had declared the defendant guilty of the premeditated murder of his ex-wife and her 18-year-old brother, and attempting to murder his five-year-old son, and handed him life in prison.

The defendant had originally received the death sentence, but the Criminal Court reduced it to life in prison because the victim’s family dropped charges.

The defendant attempted to take his own life during the incident but he survived.

Court papers said one month before the incident, the defendant obtained a taped confession that his wife was involved in an extra-marital affair and divorced her.

The victim returned to her family’s home and later called her husband asking to see her five-year-old son, since he remained with the defendant, the court added.

The court said then that the defendant “was still not happy and decided to kill his wife for her infidelity”.

On April 11, 2013, the court maintained, the defendant, who was carrying an unlicensed gun, headed to his ex-wife’s home with his son.

“Shortly after arriving, an argument ensued because he attempted to bring his wife back, but her mother refused, so he grabbed his gun and started shooting randomly,” the court said.

His wife, her brother and his son were shot in the process, the court maintained. 

The pathologists established that the woman received one fatal bullet to her heart, while her brother was shot in the lungs, the court papers added.

The couple’s son was struck by a bullet in his waist but survived after undergoing surgery, the court said.

The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling, asking for a lighter sentence because “he did not plot the murder”.

The Cassation Court agreed, saying that the alleged adultery affair occurred a few months before the incident, “and the defendant did not take any action”.

The higher court also ruled that the defendant had the unlicensed gun long before it was used in the shooting “because witnesses said he used it in a wedding in the past”.

“The victim’s mother also testified that the shooting occurred after a heated argument,” the Cassation Court ruled.

The Criminal Court will now examine the higher tribunal’s ruling and either abide by it or insist on its previous verdict, after which the case will be referred automatically to the Cassation Court for a second review.