Brother charged in honour killing

AMMAN A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after strangling his 35-year-old divorced sister to death over her alleged “suspicious behaviour,” police said.

“The suspect, in his late 20s, strangled the mother of four to death on Wednesday after she returned from a visit to Lebanon,” in Ain Al-pasha, north of Amman, a police spokesman said.

“He hid her body in a suitcase and threw it in a deserted farm. He claimed that she had suspicious behaviour.”

The spokesman gave no further details. A police statement said the body was found Friday in Safawi, east of Jordan.

“The man has confessed to committing the crime following a fight with the woman,” it added without elaborating.

Murder is punishable by death in Jordan, but in so-called “honour killings,” courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim’s family asks for leniency.

Between 15 and 20 women died in such murders each year in the Arab kingdom, despite government efforts to curb such crimes.