22-year-old charged with murder over stabbing death of relative

AMMAN — Police and senior officials on Wednesday announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man who allegedly stabbed and killed his relative on Sunday.

The victim, who worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia, was found murdered near his vehicle that was parked in a deserted area in Kufor Jayez town in Irbid, some 80km north of Amman.

Following thorough investigations and questioning the victim’s family about his movements, police concluded that one of his relatives might be the prime suspect, a senior judicial source said.

“The victim’s wife informed police that her husband left with the suspect to go to a relative’s home and never made it there,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Upon searching the suspect’s home and comparing evidence there with evidence found at the crime scene by the criminal lab, police concluded that they matched and summoned the suspect for questioning, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) statement.

The victim lived and worked in Saudi Arabia and was visiting the Kingdom with his wife, the official source said.

PSD Spokesperson Maj. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times that the suspect wanted to borrow money from the victim “since he worked in Saudi Arabia, and when he refused he stabbed him with a switchblade”.

A post-mortem examination conducted by a team of pathologists in Irbid, headed by Ali Shotar, on Monday, concluded that the victim died of heavy bleeding as a result of the stab wound to the neck, a medical source said.

“The knife hit a major vein that caused heavy bleeding,” the medical source told The Jordan Times.

Irbid’s criminal court prosecutor charged the suspect with premeditated murder and ordered his detention at a correctional and rehabilitation centre for 15 days pending further investigations into the incident, the judicial source said.