Syrian construction worker charged with wife's murder

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged a 41-year-old Syrian construction worker with premeditated murder for allegedly stabbing his Syrian wife to death at their home in Mafraq following a marital dispute over the weekend, official sources said.

The 34-year-old victim was reportedly stabbed once in the heart allegedly by her husband while she slept at dawn on Friday, a senior judicial source said.

“The victim had a heated argument with her husband and kicked him out of their bedroom,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times. 

In his initial confession before Criminal Court Prosecutor Ishaq Abu Awad, the suspect claimed that “his wife was tough with him and abusing him, and that she would often kick him out of the room or house”, according to the judicial source.

On the night of the incident, the source maintained, the couple fought, and the “suspect went outside to smoke a cigarette and was contemplating whether to kill his wife or not”.

“The suspect smoked another cigarette then went inside, grabbed a kitchen knife and went and sat next to his wife, who was sleeping, for five minutes,” the source said, quoting the suspect’s confessions.

The suspect then allegedly stabbed his wife once in the heart, then left the house and went to his sister’s house and informed her of what he did, the source added.

The sister notified the authorities and they immediately arrested the suspect and seized the knife, the source said.

The couple, who are both refugees living outside camps, have five daughters between the ages of 2 and 12, said Maj. Wasfi Etoum, the acting spokesperson of the Public Security Department.

"The children have been sent to stay with their uncle," Etoum told The Jordan Times.

Abu Awad ordered the suspect detained for 15 days at a correctional and rehabilitation centre pending further investigation. 

The Criminal Court prosecutor is expected to start hearing the testimony of the daughters and other neighbours on Sunday, the source added.