Man charged with premeditated murder in Karak shooting death

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Wednesday charged a 34-year-old man with premeditated murder in connection with the shooting death of a merchant in Karak last week, official sources said.

Meanwhile, calm was restored in Karak’s Mutah town late Tuesday night following riots by the family of the victim, who was shot at his shop last Friday, official sources said.

The riots began on Tuesday hours after police announced the arrest of a suspect in connection with the shooting death of Turki Sarairah in Mutah, some140km south of Amman.

“We had to deal with minor riots that targeted property belonging to the suspect’s family,” Public Security Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

Sartawi said gendarmerie forces contained the situation and “life is back to normal in Mutah”.

Four people were arrested in connection with the riots and are currently in custody pending further investigations, he added.

The suspect, who is single and unemployed, reportedly confessed to shooting Sarairah to death “because the victim and his father owed him money”, according to a senior judicial source close to the investigation.

The suspect confessed in front of Criminal Court Prosecutor Tayseer Bani Khalid to entering the victim’s shop wearing a hood to conceal his identity and shot him once in the chest then left, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The suspect reportedly expressed his regret in front of Bani Khalid, who issued orders for his detention at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigations.

A police statement released on Tuesday said that a special investigation team tasked with handling the murder case used “evidence from the scene to locate the suspect”.

Sarairah is survived by his 35-year-old wife, a three-year-old daughter and a nine-month-old boy.