Death sentence upheld for Bangladeshi worker who murdered elderly employers

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation on Monday upheld an October Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 26-year-old Bangladeshi domestic worker to death after convicting her of murdering an elderly couple in Irbid in March, a senior judicial source said.

“The Court of Cassation's five members finished examining the case and upheld the death sentence after establishing that the Criminal Court followed the proper procedures when issuing its sentence,” the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The Criminal Court convicted the woman on two counts of premeditated murder for bludgeoning to death an 87-year-old man and his wife, 84, with a small axe as they were sleeping in their home in Irbid on March 24.

Court papers said the defendant arrived to the Kingdom on March 18 to work for the elderly couple.

“The defendant decided that she did not want to work for the couple because they were old and decided to kill them,” according to court papers.

On the day of the murder, the court maintained, the defendant “brought a small axe and struck the victims who were asleep”.

Fearing she might be exposed, the court maintained, she changed her clothes and cleaned herself.

“She also hit herself with the axe, locked herself in the bathroom and started screaming for help and later claimed that an intruder murdered the couple and attacked her,” according to court transcripts.