10-year jail sentence upheld for woman who killed husband

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a Criminal Court December 2013 ruling sentencing a woman to 10 years in prison for murdering her husband in one of the Kingdom’s governorates in August 2013.

The Criminal Court sentenced the defendant recently to 20 years in prison after convicting her of shooting and killing her husband while he slept in their home on August 11.

However, the court immediately reduced the sentence to 10 years because the victim’s family dropped charges against the defendant.

The court said that the victim would often assault his wife and “had a quarrel with her five months before the incident where she left the house”.

The defendant was forced to return to her husband’s home a week before the murder and “the victim beat her up repeatedly, so she was fed up with the abuse”, according to court papers.

On the morning of the incident, the court maintained, the victim beat up the defendant and “an hour later, she grabbed a gun and shot her husband while he slept”. 

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court’s ruling claiming that she committed the crime in a fit of rage and should benefit from a reduced sentence as stipulated in Article 98 of the Penal Code.

However, the five-judge tribunal at the Cassation Court dismissed these claims and ruled that the Criminal Court proceedings were correct and the punishment was accurate.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Basil Abu Anzeh, Mohammad Tarawneh, Daod Tubeleh, Hussein Sakaran and Bassem Mubeideen.