Jordan News

The Court of Cassation upheld a criminal court decision acquitting a 32-year-old man who was on trial for the premeditated murder of his wife and two daughters in Ramtha in January 2017.

The accused was being tried before the Criminal Court on charges of stabbing and killing his 24-year-old wife and two daughters, one and two years, and a third four-year-old girl survived the stabbing incident.

The Criminal Court ruled that the accused “was suffering from psychological disorders at the time of the murders,” and ordered his detention at the National Psychiatric Center “until the doctors there decide that he no longer poses any danger to society.”

The court papers said that the defendant and the victim, who is also his cousin, had been married for five years, and he would beat her “often and end up after the wife spent some days in her family’s house.”

On the day of the incident, the defendant returned home and stabbed his wife and three daughters because he “suspected that his wife was cheating on him.”

The court added that the accused then went to the nearest police station and turned himself in, claiming that he had killed his wife “to cleanse his family’s honor”.

The mother and the one-year-old girl died of multiple stab wounds to different parts of their bodies, while the two-year-old girl was nearly decapitated, according to medical reports.

The 4-year-old, who sustained several stab wounds and was described as critical, survived the accident after medical intervention, according to court papers.

The court confirmed that the criminal court judges noticed during the trial that the accused “was behaving in a strange way and decided to refer him to health authorities to assess his mental health,” according to the court papers.

The court papers said that a doctor at the National Psychiatric Center, who was one of three doctors responsible for examining the accused, testified before the court that he “was suffering from a paranoid and jealous psychotic disorder.”

PCHR informed the court that the accused “most likely had paranoid personality disorder (PPD) when he committed the murders,” according to court documents.

The doctor was quoted as saying in court that, based on the indictment and the circumstances of the case, “it is likely that the defendant was ill before the stabbing incident.”

In his testimony, the doctor said: “Psychological jealousy created strong suspicions and delusions for the defendant that his wife was unfaithful to him, and therefore he was no longer able to think in a logical way.”

The Court of Cassation ruled that, based on the doctor’s testimony, “it was clear to the court that the defendant had no knowledge or control over his actions.”

For this reason, the Supreme Court affirmed, “The defendant will remain detained in the center until the doctors there determine that he no longer poses any danger to his surroundings and society.”