Cassation Court upholds four-month jail sentence for juvenile for murdering sister

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld a September 2015 juvenile court ruling sentencing a juvenile to four months in prison after convicting him of murdering his sister in the name of family honour in March 2013.

The defendant had strangled his sister to death at her home on March 17, shortly after seeing a video clip showing her and another man engaging in sexual activities.

The juvenile court initially sentenced the defendant to two years in detention after amending his premeditated murder charges to manslaughter.

The court decided to reduce the sentence to four months because the victim’s family dropped the charges against him and he was “a young man with no previous criminal record”.

Court papers said that the victim saw her brother playing with the phone and asked him to give it back but instead he showed her the video clip and asked if it was her.

“The victim responded by telling him it was her and that it was none of his business and that she was free to do whatever she wanted,” court papers said.

The defendant became enraged and strangled his sister to death, the court added.

The juvenile prosecutor had contested the verdict stating that the juvenile court should not amend the premeditated murder charges to manslaughter.

However, the Cassation Court disagreed, and ruled that the defendant’s amended charge was acceptable.

The higher court, which upheld the verdict last month, comprised judges Mohammad Ababneh, Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Basel Abu Anzeh and Mohammad Tarawneh.