Two Sri Lankans convicted of murdering 50-year-old woman

AMMAN — The Criminal Court on Sunday sentenced two Sri Lankan domestic helpers to life imprisonment for murdering a 50-year-old Jordanian woman with the intention of stealing her money. 

In a public hearing, the court said one of the defendants worked as a domestic helper for the woman on Wednesdays, and saw a safe full of jewellery and gold, so she told her friend about it and they planned the murder.

The domestic worker helped her friend sneak into the house without the knowledge of the owner, but the woman had to leave so they waited for her to come back so that they could kill her before stealing her valuables.

One Wednesday, the domestic helper told workers who were supposed to fix the water cooler at the woman’s house that she was not there, so they waited in the yard, but one of them had to go to the Khalda area to buy a tool to fix the cooler.

The woman came back to her house, and the workers called their colleague who went to buy the tool and told him that she was back, but when they tried to reach her, she would not answer the door or her phone.

Afterwards, the workers saw the defendants running out of the house in a “suspicious” manner with bags in their hands so they reported them to the police. 

Upon investigation, the two women confessed to murdering the victim by strangling her with the belt of a bathrobe, according to the court.