Police say brother confesses to setting sister on fire

AMMAN — Police said a man confessed on Tuesday to setting his 35-year-old married sister on fire in Jerash a day earlier.

The victim had been rushed to the hospital by the suspect, who claimed that “his sister committed suicide while at her family’s home by pouring kerosene over her body”, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

The victim was declared dead upon her arrival at the hospital, according to Sartawi. However, the police official added: “Investigators became suspicious of his story and decided to expand their investigation”.

“Our investigators determined that the victim was murdered and her death was not the result of suicide as her brother, the suspect, claimed,” Sartawi said.

A Public Security Department statement indicated that the initial cause of the incident stemmed from a “family dispute”. 

A close relative of the victim told The Jordan Times that the victim’s husband had called her family and told them to come take their daughter, adding that the minute she walked into her family’s home, her brother doused her in gas and set her on fire.

The victim’s body was transferred to the Irbid National Institute of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy, according to a senior medical source.

“The pathologists determined that the victim died of third degree burns,” but kept the final report sealed, pending further investigation, the medical source told The Jordan Times.

Authorities told The Jordan Times that the Criminal Court’s prosecution office was notified about the incident and began questioning the suspect.

After investigators began questioning, the suspect “soon confessed” to murdering his sister a day earlier, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.