Middle East News
Jordan drops legal exemptions for honour crimes
Jul 11, 2009, 14:46 GMT
Amman - Reduced sentences in cases where a person claims the murder of a woman was committed in an effort to restore honour will no longer be allowed by Jordan's courts, a state official said Saturday.
'A crime is a crime. There will be no such things as honour crimes or exemptions for those who commit such crimes, because all people are equal before the law,' said Nabil Sharif, minister of state for media affairs and communication.
The change would be a massive departure from established judicial practices in Jordan. According to official records, some defendants who murdered relatives in the name of family honour routinely receive reduced sentences, sometimes to just a few months.
Over the past two decades, dozens of women were reportedly killed in Jordan annually in the name of defending family honour. Two such cases have been reported since Thursday in Jordan.
'When they occur, honour killings are usually committed by one family member against another, supposedly in the name of defending the honour of the family, but in the eyes of the law, these crimes are now perceived as crimes against humanity and are dealt with accordingly,' Justice Minister Ayman Odeh said.
Sharif said that the government was taking a number of 'legal and preventive measures' to ensure a drastic drop in the number of such crimes.
Over the past year, he said, the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Social Affairs and the Public Security Directorate teamed up to provide 'immediate protection' to women whose relatives report their absence from homes.
'The violence against women in our Arab region is unjustifiable and has nothing to do with Islam, which provides for treating women with respect,' Sharif said.
This notion is supported by Muslim clerics who insist that Islamic teachings had nothing to do with honour killings.
'Islam absolutely rejects the killing of others by individuals. There is nothing called 'honour crimes' in Islam,' Abdul Rahman Ibdah, a prominent Muslim scholar, said.
He believed that most crimes committed in the name of honour turned out in court to be based on 'illusions of false suspicions'.
The head of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, Momen Hadidi, said that autopsies showed most female victims of honour crimes in Jordan to be virgins.
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Jordan man kills sister over 'immoral behaviour'
AMMAN, July 10, 2009 (AFP) - A 20-year-old Jordanian stabbed his married sister and smashed her head with a rock after accusing her of 'immoral behaviour,' a security official said on Friday, a day after a similar crime took place.
'The suspect stabbed his younger sister 20 times with a kitchen knife before smashing her head with a rock inside the family's home on Thursday night, in Nozha' in east Amman, the official told AFP.
'He handed himself over to police and confessed to the crime, claiming that he wanted to cleanse his honour after he found her with a man and because her behaviour was immoral.'
According to the official, the mother of one 'disappeared' from her house a month ago.
'Police found her with a man in an apartment and kept her in custody before handing her over to her brother on the day of the murder,' he said.
'She told him she was hungry, so he went out to get food and when he returned, he found her with a man, he alleged,' the official added.
The latest killing came hours after a 24-year-old Jordanian farmer was charged with premeditated murder over the fatal stabbing of his unmarried pregnant sister.
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Jordan halves man's jail term for 'honour' killingJul 12th, 2009 - 05:28:29
Agence France-Presse - July 7, 2009
AMMAN - A court on Tuesday halved the jail term of a 29-year-old Jordanian man who shot dead his raped sister 12 times 'in the name of honour,' a judicial official said.
The criminal court initially sentenced the man to 15 years with hard labour for killing his sister in 2008 in Mowaqqar, southeast of the capital Amman, but immediately reduced it to seven-and-a-half years.
The judgment can be appealed within 30 days.
'The woman disappeared from home for six months after she was raped last year,' the official told AFP.
'Police kept the woman in custody for protection and later handed her over to the family, but the brother shot her 12 times in different parts of her body once she arrived home, killing her immediately.'
The man told police that he committed the crime 'in the name of honour,' according to the official.
It was not immediately clear whether police ever caught the rapist.
Murder is punishable by the death penalty in Jordan, but in the case of so-called 'honour killings,' a court usually commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim's family urges leniency.
Between 15 and 20 women are murdered each year in Jordan in the name of 'honour.' Last year, around 17 such killings were recorded.
Parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher penalties.
© Copyright (c) AFP
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