Three brothers walk free over murder of sister

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation, citing the general pardon, upheld a Criminal Court's ruling acquitting three brothers who murdered their divorced sister for reasons related to “family honour” in the Jordan Valley in August 2018.

The higher court upheld the April Criminal Court's ruling to acquit the defendants, aged 34, 26 and 19, of manslaughter for their role in the murder of their 27-year-old sister at a house in the Jordan Valley on August 9.

The Criminal Court had also decided to amend the premeditated murder charges that were originally pressed against the brothers to manslaughter because it was proven to court the defendants did not plot the murder.

The court also stated that the victim’s parents dropped charges against their sons.

The higher court ruled that since the victim’s parents dropped charges against the defendant, “then the manslaughter charge falls under the general pardon and they will not be sentenced as stipulated in the general pardon”.

Court papers said the victim, who had been divorced for five years would often “leave the house without her family's permission”.

Four days before the incident, the court documents said, the victim "escaped again from her parent's home to an unknown destination".

The three defendants went looking for their sister and someone in the neighbourhood informed them that she went to a house in the area with an Egyptian farmer, according to court documents.

“The defendants headed to the house and upon searching it they found their sister lying on a bed,” court transcripts said.

One of the three brothers "who happened to be carrying a gun fired several rounds at his sister's head, then headed to the nearest police station with his two siblings and turned himself in claiming “family honour” as his motive," according to court documents.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Majid Azab and Nayef Samarat.