‘Man kills wife, tries to commit suicide in Irbid’

AMMAN — A 31-year-old man, who on Friday night allegedly stabbed his Syrian wife to death and attempted to take his own life, is recovering at a hospital in Irbid, official sources said.

The Jordanian man reportedly killed his wife with an “axe” and “he allegedly used the same weapon to strike himself in the neck”, a senior judicial source said. 

“The husband had attempted to kill himself by inhaling gas after opening a gas cylinder in a small room in the house, but he was rescued by neighbours who rushed to the house after hearing a woman screaming,” the source told The Jordan Times.

An initial investigation indicated that “the incident was the result of domestic abuse because the husband had a quick temper”, the judicial source added.

A team of government pathologists who performed an autopsy on the victim found that she “died of a deep wound to the throat caused by a sharp object”, a medical source said.

“The victim’s head was almost decapitated and probably the weapon was an axe,” the medical source told The Jordan Times.

The Criminal Court prosecutor is expected to visit the suspect in hospital to take a statement and will “probably charge him with premeditated murder”, the judicial source said.

“The husband’s condition is stable since the cut he inflicted on himself was not deep enough to cause life-threatening injuries,” the medical source explained.

The couple had been married for over three years and had two boys, a two-year-old and a seven-day-old newborn, the source said.