“Honor killing” brings death sentence to two Jordanians

Two Jordanians were sentenced to death in an Amman criminal court for the death of their sister earlier this year. Defense of their intention “to cleanse the family’s honor,” failed in court, official stated.

“The two men, aged 23 and 20, took their divorced sister, also in her twenties, to the garden of their house and strangled her in June 2013,” in Zarqa, a city northeast of Amman, the official told AFP.

“They confessed to killing their sister, who worked in a kindergarten after suspecting that she had behaved badly,” the official said without explaining further.

“They said that they wanted to cleanse the family’s honor,” the official added.

Murder is punishable by death in Jordan, but in “honor killings” courts usually reduce sentences if the victim’s family requests leniency for the assailants.

“For the first time in several years, the family of the victim refused to ask the court for leniency, demanding the maximum punishment,” another court official told AFP without giving further details.

Despite government efforts to curb such crimes, between 15 and 20 women die in so-called “honor” murders each year in the Hashemite kingdom.

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