Cops probe 'honour killing'
2005-05-31 11:38
Amman - The Jordanian authorities are questioning the relatives of a woman murdered by one of her siblings in a so-called "honour crime", the Jordan Times reported on Tuesday.
The victim, a divorced mother of four, was stabbed to death on Friday and one of her brothers turned himself in to the police claiming he killed her "to cleanse his family's honour," the newspaper said.
The suspect said he murdered the woman "after seeing a videotape that was left on his doorstep, allegedly showing his sister with a strange man," an official told the newspaper.
The woman's father, mother and another brother were detained for questioning on suspicion of luring the victim to the family home in a Amman neighbourhood where she was murdered.
"Initial official interrogations indicated that the four plotted the woman's murder," the official said.
Momen Hadidi, the head of the national institute for forensic medicine, told the Jordan Times that six women were murdered in Jordan in so-called "honour crimes" since the start of the year.
At least 19 women lost their lives in honour killings in the conservative Muslim kingdom last year, according to the Jordan Times.
"We need to work on all levels to stop these crimes and at the same time not to show the perpetrators as heroes," said Hadidi, who also heads the Jordanian Family Protection Project.