Six-year prison sentence upheld for man who beat, killed wife

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an October Criminal Court ruling sentencing a man to six years in prison after convicting him of beating and killing his wife in Irbid in December 2014.

The convicted man, a Syrian national, first received a 12-year prison term, the maximum by law, after being convicted of beating his wife, also Syrian, on December 8, leading to her death from her injuries almost a month later.  

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence by half because the victim’s family dropped the charges against the husband.

The court also decided to amend the original manslaughter charges brought against the defendant by the Criminal Court prosecutor to “beating that lead to the death of an individual”.

The 17-year-old victim fell into a coma following the December beating incident and succumbed to her injuries 40 days later, the court verdict said.

Court documents said the defendant engaged in a heated argument with his wife on the day of the incident and then beat her with a wooden stick on her head and different parts of her body.

“The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital suffering from a brain hemorrhage and was admitted to the ICU, but her situation deteriorated 40 days later and she died,” the court verdict said.

A post-mortem conducted by government pathologists following the incident indicated that the victim died “of multiple bruises to her head inflicted by a blunt object”.

The woman received over 10 blows on her head, neck and back, according to the pathologists’ report.

 The Cassation Court ruled that the “Criminal Court ruling was correct and the tribunal followed the proper procedures when issuing the verdict.”

The higher court also ruled that the convicted man received the appropriate punishment.

The Court of Cassation comprised President of the Court of Cassation Judge Hisham Tal and judges Basil Abu Anzeh, Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat and Mohammad Tarawneh.