Jerash man who gouged wife’s eyes charged with causing permanent disability

AMMAN — The Jerash Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday charged a 31-year-old man, who allegedly gouged his wife’s eyes earlier in the month, with causing permanent disability, a senior judicial source said.

The 25-year-old woman, a mother of three children, was reportedly left 100 per cent blind following a domestic dispute with her husband at their home on November 6.

“The preliminary medical report indicated that the victim lost her vision entirely, and the charge against [the defendant] entails a minimum of three to 15 years in prison,” a senior judicial source said.

The judicial source told The Jordan Times that the prosecution office is still examining the file and that the charge “could change to manslaughter, which could land the suspect a long-term prison term”.

“If we receive any further medical reports that point to the fact that the wife’s life was under any danger, then the charges will change to attempted murder,” the senior judicial source explained.

The judicial source added that the General Attorney’s office at the Criminal Court in Amman is following up closely on the incident and that if “the charges change to attempted murder, the suspect will be tried in Amman”.  

The woman is still recovering at King Hussein Medical Centre and is undergoing psychological sessions there, her lawyer, Eva Abu Halaweh, told The Jordan Times. 

Also on Thursday, Ministry of Social Development officials told The Jordan Times that the victim’s children were reunited with their mother earlier in the day.  The children were staying with their father’s parents in Aqaba since the incident took place last week.

 The lawyer had told The Jordan Times in a recent interview that the victim and her family were insisting on filing charges against her husband and had asked to be reunited with her three children, two boys aged 11 and 9 and a 30-month-old daughter. 

Sources told The Jordan Times recently that the victim and her husband had “constant marital problems” and that she had returned to her family’s home for several days. 

On the day of the incident, a source told The Jordan Times, the woman returned home, and shortly afterwards “her husband drew a knife and threatened to kill her and her children”.

The source added that the husband allegedly jumped on his wife, “pinned her to the ground and gouged her eyes with the knife”. 

The husband then went to his neighbour and informed him of what he had done, while his wife crawled outside looking for help from other neighbours, the source added.  

The Jordanian National Commission for Women and other women’s groups are intensifying their call for a sit-in in front of the Prime Ministry on Saturday under the theme “Enough”.

The sit-in will begin at 2pm, according to the campaign’s organisers.

The women’s movement also said that they plan to organise an electronic campaign a few days before the sit-in to raise awareness about gender-based violence and to encourage people to join the sit-in.