Woman charged with premeditated murder of husband

AMMAN — The criminal court prosecutor on Saturday charged a woman with murdering her husband and burying his body at the house last week, official sources said.

The suspect was arrested shortly after one of her daughters reportedly told a relative about the incident.

On Saturday, Criminal Court Prosecutor Afif Khawaldeh charged the 47-year-old woman with premeditated murder and her 20-year-old son with complicity in premeditated murder, a senior judicial source said.

In her initial testimony to police and Khawaldeh, the suspect claimed that her husband was “constantly abusing and beating her up and that the abuse escalated in the past two years, including several occasions where he kicked her out of the house”, according to the judicial source and an official close to the investigation.

On Thursday, the judicial source told The Jordan Times that the 46-year-old victim reportedly returned home and “began cursing his wife and abusing her”.

“The suspect could no longer take the abuse so she grabbed a gun that was in the drawer which belonged to her husband and shot him dead.”

The suspect decided to get rid of the body so she removed the tiles of the bedroom and start digging a grave, according to the judicial source.

“Her son heard the noise and went to check the matter so the suspect informed him of what she did,” the source explained.

The son decided to help his mother but “a block of cement hindered the digging at a depth of 20 centimetres, so they decided to dig a grave in the garage,” said the judicial source.

“The son started digging a grave in the garage, but his eldest sister saw him and decided to notify her uncles, who informed the police,” according to the source.

The suspect decided to leave her home with her four daughters as a result and headed to Aqaba, some 330km south of Amman, but “police trailed her and arrested her with the help of Aqaba police,” said the source close to the investigations.

The family members testified that “their mother was constantly abused and beaten by the victim,” the judicial source said.

The couple had been married for 21 years. The aunt of the children took the four daughters and one son into her care, while the fifth daughter who reported the murder is married, according to the source.