By Rana Husseini

AMMAN - The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old girl to 15 years in prison after convicting her of poisoning and killing four of her family members in Irbid in February.

H.M. shed a few tears and screamed when presiding Judge Hassan Amayrah read her verdict.

She then turned to her lawyer and said she “did not do it” and asked him to appeal the verdict at a higher court.

The tribunal first handed H.M. the death penalty for the premeditated murder of her parents and two of her siblings, but immediately reduced the sentence to 15 years because her family members and uncles dropped charges against her.

The court said the defendant, a second year student at the Irbid College for Girls, was accused by her parents and siblings of stealing JD30 from one of her brothers almost a week before the incident.

“Her family searched her room, then her brother dragged her by the hair and hit her on her head and legs,” the court added.

The defendant said she decided to take revenge because her family was treating her as a thief, so she mixed juice with a deadly poison her father had brought home to kill stray dogs and offered it to her parents and two brothers.

The deceased were identified as 40-year-old M.S., his 37-year-old wife T.H., and their two sons Ahmad and Hani aged 21 and 17.

The suspect’s 14-year-old sister was the sole survivor because she did not drink the juice.

H.M.’s father and two brothers died instantly, while her mother, who was taken to Princess Basma Hospital by neighbours and admitted to the ICU in a coma, died a day later.

In her initial confession to police, H.M. claimed she had no intention of killing her family, but “just wanted to harm them because they considered her a thief”.

But in its ruling, the court said H.M. “knew she was using a deadly substance that would eventually lead to her family’s death”.

“The defendant is a harsh person and presented her family with the deadly mix without knowing their fate and without taking into consideration the religious violation behind her actions,” the court said.

The defendant stripped herself of humanity and passion by forgetting that it was her family that brought her to this life, raised her until she was 19 and supported her education, when she gave them the deadly mix and killed them, the court added.

The defendant’s lawyer said he plans to appeal the verdict at a higher court within the next 30 days.