27-year-old charged with murder of Bashir hospital surgeon

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor late Sunday night charged a 27-year-old man with the premeditated murder of a Bashir Hospital paediatric surgeon near his residence in Shafa Badran earlier in the day, official sources said.

Mohammad Abu Risheh, 43, was allegedly stabbed to death by the suspect, who held a grudge over an old dispute regarding the victim’s treatment of one of his daughters, a senior judicial source said.

“The suspect plotted to kill the victim because of the disagreement, and on Sunday asked a relative to give him a lift to the doctor’s house without revealing his intentions,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

When the suspect arrived at the victim’s house, he “saw him standing nearby and stabbed him one fatal time in the chest”, the source added.

The suspect left the area and police arrested him later after tracing the licence plate number of the vehicle he rode in, according to the judicial source.

A second official source told The Jordan Times that the victim, father of five daughters, treated the suspect’s one-year-old daughter at Al Bashir Hospital almost four months ago.

“The suspect was not satisfied with the treatment and had a scuffle with the victim at the hospital, and he was briefly detained at the time,” the source said.

Since then, he added, “the suspect vowed to take revenge for what he believed was unsatisfactory medical attention, although his daughter was fine after that.”

Criminal Court Prosecutor Afif Khawaldeh issued orders for the suspect’s detention at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigation.

Khawaldeh decided not to charge the driver of the vehicle “because it was proven that he was not involved”, the judicial source said.

The Jordan Medical Association has complained for years about assaults on doctors and medical staff. In 2013, 38 cases of assaults on medics were reported, and 19 cases were registered in the first three months of 2014.