Court upholds sentence of three men convicted of killing 20-year-old female relative

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld an October Criminal Court ruling sentencing three men to over seven years in prison after convicting them of the premeditated murder of their 20-year-old female relative in October 2012.

The Criminal Court declared the defendants guilty of stabbing and slitting the throat of their female relative because she left their home with her fiancé without their approval on October 20 and handed them a 15-year prison term each.

However, the same tribunal decided to immediately slash the sentence against the defendants, the victim’s brother and two uncles included, in half because the victim’s family dropped charges against them.

Court papers said the victim decided to marry her cousin against her family’s wishes and got engaged “so the defendants plotted to murder her”.

On the day of the incident, court documents said, the defendants lured the victim to a relative’s house where “they locked her inside a room”.

“The defendants took turns in stabbing her while at the same time preventing her father and brother from entering the room to help her,” the court papers said.

When they made sure she was dead, after eventually slitting her throat, according to the transcripts, “they went outside and asked their relatives to wave a white flag because they cleansed their family’s honour”.

The defendants then waited for the police to come and arrest them, claiming family honour as their motive, court documents added.

The Cassation Court ruled that the verdict was correct and that the defendants deserved the sentence they received.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Majid Azab, Yassin Abdullat and Hamad Ghzawi.