Court upholds death sentence in patricide case

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has upheld an April Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 21-year-old woman to death after convicting her of murdering her father in the town of Jiza near Queen Alia International Airport in January 2014.

The same tribunal sentenced the defendant’s 46-year-old mother to life in prison for complicity in murder.

The court ordered the two defendants to pay JD11,600 in compensation for the victim’s family.

The court verdict said the victim, who returned home late at night drunk, had an argument with his wife and daughter because “he wanted to kick his wife out of the house on January 30”.

“The argument became heated and turned into a scuffle, and the victim fell on a wood heater and lost consciousness,” the court said.

The defendants attacked the victim “and chocked him to death with their hands”, according to the six-page verdict.

The defendants then lifted the victim and placed him on his bed and told to his family that he died after falling on the wood heater, the court added.

However, the court maintained, “family members noticed bruises on the victim and notified the authorities, who arrested the defendants after an autopsy indicated that he died of strangulation”.

The attorney general at the Criminal Court called on the Cassation Court to uphold the sentence because “the defendants got what they deserved”.

The defendants did not appeal their verdicts.

The higher court ruled that the Criminal Court’s verdict was sufficient and in accordance with the law.

The Cassation Court tribunal comprised judges Basil Abu Anzeh, Mohammad Ibrahim, Daoud Tubeleh, Bassem Mubeidin and Hussein Sakran.