Syrian refugee gets 10-year jail term for beating wife to death

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Tuesday handed a 28-year-old Syrian refugee an increased sentence after convicting him of beating his wife to death and attempting to conceal the murder in Mafraq in February 2017.

The court ruled that the defendant, who works as a shepherd, is guilty of beating his 20-year-old wife and causing her death on February 3 and handed him a 10-year prison term.

The defendant then attempted to conceal the death by hiding his wife’s body in a cave and pretending that he was looking for her, the court documents said.

“The minimum punishment for causing death by beating is seven years, but the tribunal decided to increase the sentence by three years because of the heinousness of the murder and because the defendant concealed the incident from the authorities,” a senior judicial source explained.

The tribunal also decided to amend the premeditated murder charges originally pressed against the defendant because “it was proven that he did not plot the murder”, the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

“The defendant would often beat his wife to harm her and he did not intend to kill her in the first place,” the judicial source explained.

Court documents said the defendant and his wife, both Syrian refugees, had “constant marital problems since the day they were married and that he used to beat her”.

On February 3, the court maintained, an argument ensued between the two and “the defendant beat his wife with a wooden stick”.

“The defendant left the house and, the following day, he discovered that his wife was dead,” court papers said.

The defendant carried his wife’s body to a cave, dumped it in a seven-metre hole and covered it with rocks. He then went to a police station to report his wife missing, according to court papers.

But the victim’s family had suspicions that “the suspect might have had something to do with her disappearance, so they kept pressing him until he confessed 20 days later”, the court maintained.

Registered as refugees, the couple, who have two boys aged three and two years old, lived outside refugee camps.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Ahmad Kinani asked the court to hand the defendant the maximum punishment.

The tribunal was comprised of judges Majid Rafayah, Anwar Abu Eid, and Nawaf Samarat.

The verdict will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.