Man charged with premeditated murder of wife in drowning case

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Monday charged a 52-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his wife, whom he reported had drowned in King Abdullah Canal over the weekend, official sources said.

The victim, also 52, reportedly drowned in the canal while on a picnic with the suspect in the Jordan Valley, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

"The victim's husband claimed that his wife slipped in the canal and drowned because she did not know how to swim. The authorities did not buy his story and interrogated him until he confessed to pushing her so that she would drown," the source said. 

Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said that the suspect reportedly confessed to "pushing his wife on purpose because of family problems".

"Our interrogation teams determined that the husband was the prime suspect, and after questioning, he confessed," Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

In his initial confession to Criminal Court Prosecutor Abdul Illah Assaf, the suspect said that "he had asked his wife to pose for a photo at the edge of the canal, and then he pushed her", the senior judicial source said.

"The suspect watched his wife drown, then went to the police and told them that his wife had fallen into the canal," the source added.

Based on the suspect's confessions, the preliminary motive behind the murder is "financial disputes and constant marital problems", according to the source. 

The suspect, who has another wife, had been married to the victim for one year, the source said. 

Both Sartawi and the senior judicial source said that investigations are ongoing.

Meanwhile, Assaf ordered that the suspect be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation facility for 15 days pending further investigations, according to the judicial source.

The King Abdullah Canal, which spans 110 kilometres, is one of Jordan's oldest and most important water systems. Supplied by the Yarmouk River, it was built in the early 1960s and now irrigates 40 per cent of the Jordan Valley's crops.