‘Surviving daughters in suspected filicide staying at ministry centre’

AMMAN — The surviving daughters of a woman who allegedly strangled and murdered their three siblings in late October will remain at the Family Reconciliation Centre (FRC) until the case is closed, official sources said on Wednesday.

The two girls, aged 16 and 14, were asleep on October 26 and woke up to find their siblings dead and their mother approaching them allegedly to kill them. They escaped from their home and called the police from a neighbour’s house.

The woman, in her early forties, reportedly used her veil to strangle her 12-year-old son, and 11- and nine-year-old daughters at their house in the capital’s Tabarbour neighbourhood.

The woman then reportedly attempted to take her own life by hanging herself but police prevented her and took her into custody.

On Sunday, Criminal Court Prosecutor Tayseer Bani Khaled referred the woman to the National Institute of Psychiatric Medicine for a psychiatric evaluation.

The two girls will remain at the FRC, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Social Development, until the case at the Criminal Court is over, which could take one to two years, a senior official source said.

A team from the ministry, which examined the case, said the elder daughter claimed she was sexually molested by her father for around four years, the source told The Jordan Times.

“The daughter claimed that the sexual molestation began when she was in fifth grade,” the source explained.

The daughter previously told her school teachers about the molestation and they had informed the mother, the source said, quoting the girl’s initial testimony.

The mother reportedly confronted her husband with the allegations “and he promised not to touch his daughter again”, according to the source.

But in September, the source maintained, the father allegedly started molesting his daughter again so the mother filed a complaint at the Family Protection Department affiliated with the Public Security Department.

The father was referred to the criminal prosecutor, who charged him with sexual molestation and detained him briefly, after which he was released on bail, the source said. 

“We are not sure yet if the murder of the children is related to the assault on the eldest daughter,” the source added.

Bani Khaled was unable to question the woman during her stay at the hospital because “she did not say anything to explain her actions,” a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times recently.

Minister of Social Development Reem Abu Hassan recently visited the two girls to offer them psychological and moral support, a source form the ministry said.

“Minister Abu Hassan instructed FRC administrative officials to make sure that the two girls continue their education,” the ministry source told The Jordan Times.