Man sentenced to 12-year prison term for beating wife to death

AMMAN — The Criminal Court has sentenced a man to 12 years in prison after convicting him of beating his wife to death in an Amman neighbourhood last year.

The tribunal decided to amend the premeditated murder charge against the defendant to the charge of beating to death after concluding that the defendant “did not intend to murder his wife”, a senior judicial source said.

“The defendant engaged in a heated argument with his wife and hit her on various parts of her body and this eventually led to her death,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The victim had left her home and went to stay at a friend’s house a few days before the incident, according to the judicial source.

When she returned to her home in the Abu Nseir neighbourhood, the source added, the couple “engaged in a heated argument over marital issues and the woman ended up dying”, the judicial source explained.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges during his opening trial earlier this year.

The tribunal comprised judges Talal Aqrabawi, Ayman Ghzawi and Ashraf Abdullah.

The prosecutor had asked the court to impose the maximum punishment on the defendant as stipulated by the law.

The verdict, which was issued by the tribunal last week, will automatically be reviewed by the Cassation Court within 30 days.