Teenager charged with murder of sister in ‘honour crime’

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged an 18-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his sister “for reasons related to family honour” in Madaba, 30km southwest of Amman, official sources said.

The 20-year-old victim was reportedly shot by her younger brother while she slept in her family home early Saturday morning, a senior judicial source said.

“The suspect informed his relatives that he killed his sister and they took him to the nearest police station where he turned himself in, claiming family honour as his motive,” the source told The Jordan Times.

In his initial testimony to police and Criminal Court Prosecutor Mohammad Bdairat, the suspect claimed that one of his cousins informed him that he saw his sister talking on a mobile phone that the family had no knowledge of,” the judicial source said.

The suspect claimed that he became enraged, took the phone from his sister and smashed it, then went to tender his sheep, the judicial source said.

When he returned late at night, the source said, “the young man grabbed a gun and shot his sister four times while she slept”, according to the judicial source.

A post-mortem conducted on the victim revealed that she received three fatal shots to the head and one shot to the shoulder, a senior medical source said.

The autopsy that was performed by a team of government pathologists at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that the victim was not sexually active at the time of her death, the medical source told The Jordan Times.

The victim, who was supposed to get engaged to one of her cousins on Saturday, is survived by her mother and four siblings, aged nine, 11, 15 and the 18-year-old suspect. The victim’s father is dead, according to the judicial source.

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