Man reportedly kills father with his own walking stick

AMMAN — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Monday charged a 40-year-old man with premeditated murder for killing his father a day earlier in Fuheis, and referred him to a government committee for psychiatric evaluation, official sources said.

The suspect, who was not identified, allegedly struck his 86-year-old father on the head with a wooden stick and killed him in front of the National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH) in Fuheis, a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

“The victim, a Ruseifa resident, was escorting his son, who suffered from mental problems, to the NCMH and all of a sudden the son grabbed his father’s walking stick and hit him repeatedly on the head,” the judicial source said.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Salah Taleb decided to refer the suspect to the NCMH for evaluation by a team of government physicians to determine if he is fit to stand trial, a second source said.

“It will take the physicians around a month to evaluate the suspect to see if he is suffering from mental problems and is a threat to society,” the source told The Jordan Times.

If the physicians prove that he is sane, the suspect will stand trial for premeditated murder, the source explained.

Otherwise, the source added, the “suspect will remain at the NCMH until he is cured and then stand trial”.