Prosecutor charges man with manslaughter in wife’s death

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Tuesday charged a 42-year-old taxi driver with the manslaughter of his wife in Amman on Monday, official sources said.

The suspect contacted police on Monday morning claiming that his wife, in her 20s, died of gas inhalation while at their home in Qweismeh, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said.

The suspect claimed that he returned home and could not enter the house, “so he broke the glass and when he managed to enter he found his wife unconscious and unresponsive,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

“Investigators rushed to the scene and indeed smelled gas and found a broken window but were suspicious of the husband’s story and concluded that the accident was staged,” according to the official.

A second senior judicial source told The Jordan Times that Criminal Court Prosecutor Baker Quran decided to transfer the body to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for an official autopsy.

“The autopsy confirmed the authorities’ suspicions because it revealed that the victim was strangled to death,” the senior judicial source said.

Upon interrogating the suspect, he reportedly confessed to “strangling his wife following a domestic dispute”, according to the judicial source.

In his initial confession in front of Quran, the suspect said he decided to open the gas cylinder and broke the window in an effort to deceive the investigators, the judicial source added.

Quran ordered that the suspect be detained for 15 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigations.

“The Criminal Court prosecutor is expected to hear more witnesses in the case before referring the file to the court,” the judicial source said.