New details emerge in case of woman burned to death

AMMAN — New details have emerged in the murder case of a Lebanese woman, allegedly killed by her Jordanian husband in Madaba over the weekend.

The suspect reportedly confessed to murdering his 28-year-old wife at 1am on Saturday following a dispute by setting her ablaze, Police Spokesperson Maj. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times recently.

“The suspect had claimed that he suspected his wife’s behaviours a day before the incident and decided to murder her for reasons related to family honour,” a senior official source said.

The suspect confessed to investigators that he took his wife and two children, who are less than 10 years old, in his bus for a ride on the day of the incident, the senior official source told The Jordan Times.

“The suspect tied his wife’s hands with wires and then descended from the bus and siphoned diesel while the victim watched,” the senior official source said.

The suspect then “dragged his wife outside the bus. He attempted to strangle her with his hands and then poured diesel on her body and set her ablaze”.

The suspect then called his uncle "to inform him that he killed his wife and the latter immediately called the police to inform them about the incident", according to official sources.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Sultan Shakhanbeh, who rushed to the scene, charged the 28-year-old suspect, a public bus driver, with premeditated murder, senior judicial sources have told The Jordan Times.   

A post-mortem conducted by a team of pathologists at the Madaba National Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that the victim had burns over 95 per cent of her body, a senior medical source told The Jordan Times.

“The victim was alive when her body was set ablaze and there were also bruises on her head that were the result of being struck with a blunt object or because she fell,” the medical source said. 

A second source told The Jordan Times that the couple were married for around six years and they have three children.  Only two of the three children were present when the incident occured, the official source said.

The senior official source added that “the victim’s in-laws received her body and she was laid to rest on Tuesday in Jordan since the Jordanian officials were unable to locate any immediate family member in Lebanon”.