Two women charged with premeditated double murder, robbery

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday charged two sisters with premeditated murder and robbery in connection with the murder of a 72-year-old man and his Filipina domestic helper at their home in a west Amman suburb on Sunday, a senior judicial source said.

The two victims were discovered by firefighters who were called to extinguish a blaze at around 9:30pm, which had broken out in the apartment on Medina Munwara Street on February 5.

The two suspects, aged 29 and 31, were arrested by police in Zarqa, some 22km northeast of Amman, on Wednesday. 

Their arrests followed intense investigations and analysis of evidence left at the crime scene, Public Security Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

In their initial confessions to police, the two women said they saw an ad in the newspaper, placed by the victim, for a female cook. When they went to discuss the job offer with him, they ended up “murdering him and his Filipina domestic helper”, according to the police official.

On Wednesday night, however, the two suspects retracted their initial confessions made to the police before Criminal Court Prosecutor Ashraf Abdullah. 

They claimed that “they did go to the house of the victim, but when they arrived, the two had already been murdered”, a senior judicial source said.

But when confronted by the evidence found at the scene which “directly linked them to the murders, the two women confessed to committing the crime”, the judicial source, who is close to the investigations, told The Jordan Times.

The two women said they headed to the victim’s house when they saw the ad for a female cook, the judicial source added, quoting the suspects’ initial statement.

“The two suspects intended to rob the [male] victim, and one of them claimed to be a cook in order to enter his house,” the judicial source explained.

During the negotiations, the source maintained, an argument ensued and “one of the sisters smacked the Filipina domestic helper, aged 34, with a big mug on her head repeatedly and stabbed her”.

“One of the suspects then attacked the… man with a cologne bottle he owned and smashed his head with it,” the source added.

The two sisters reportedly searched the house, “took the victim’s mobile phone, JD800 and attempted to open a safe but failed to do so”, according to the judicial source.

The women then reportedly set the house on fire “in an attempt to conceal the crime by burning their [victims’] bodies, but the Civil Defence Department firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze before it reached the victims”, the source added.

The suspects, who live in a furnished apartment in Amman, “destroyed the victim’s mobile, thinking that the police would not know who called him last, then headed back to Zarqa to stay with their mother, until they were caught by police”, the source added.

Abdullah ordered that both women, who had no previous criminal records, be detained at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigation and the questioning of more witnesses, the judicial source said.