Father confesses to murdering his children

AMMAN — The criminal court prosecutor on Saturday charged a 50-year-old man with two counts of premeditated murder — of his son and daughter — in an east Amman neighbourhood last week, a senior official source said.

The suspect, an office worker, reportedly confessed to the two murders after pathologists from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (NIFM) determined that his daughter was murdered and did not commit suicide last week as he had claimed, the official source added.

The 23-year-old victim was rushed to hospital last Wednesday, where she was “declared dead on arrival”, the source noted.

An autopsy by the NIFM staff indicated that the “victim was forced to commit suicide based on evidence collected from her body”, he added.

But before police could obtain the findings, the suspect allegedly stabbed his 20-year-old son to death on Friday, the source told The Jordan Times.

Investigators became suspicious of the two deaths and questioned the father, who “confessed to killing his two children”, according to a statement released by the Public Security Department.

In his initial confession, the suspect told investigators that he “killed his married daughter with the help of his son, the second victim, because she went missing from her husband’s home”, the source said.

“The woman’s father and brother forced her to take a poisonous substance and then, when the police arrived, claimed that she took her own life,” the source explained, quoting the suspect’s initial confessions.

The victim’s brother “regretted taking part in the plot to kill his sister and started crying and discussing the matter with the suspect”, who reportedly “decided to get rid of his son as well and stabbed him to death”, the source added.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Mohammad Daradkeh issued orders for the suspect to be detained for 14 days at a correctional centre by pending further investigation.