AMMAN, 2 February 2007 — The Jordanian government yesterday questioned the authenticity of a report by a UN human rights investigator detecting evidence of torture at country jails, and said it would respond in writing to the UN Human Rights Council due to meet in Geneva on March 12.
UN special rapporteur for torture Manfred Nowak “based his report on individual cases which do not reflect the general situation in Jordan which, as signatory to the anti-torture convention, has enacted legislations that prevent torture,” the director of the Legal Department at the Foreign Ministry, Mahmoud Al-Hmoud, said in a statement.
“The government will submit its reply to Nowak’s report to the UN Human Rights Council due to meet in Geneva in March,” he added. In a 38-page document, Nowak reportedly urged the Jordanian government to investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture and ill-treatment and also make changes to domestic laws, including the constitution.
Meanwhile, a Jordanian who killed his divorced sister over rumors she had a lover was cleared of premeditated murder because he acted in a “fit of rage,” after his family dropped charges, the Jordan Times reported yesterday.
The verdict was handed down on Wednesday, five months after the 19-year-old university student shot to death his 22-year-old sister, 10 minutes after he was told she had a lover out of wedlock, it said, quoting court papers.
The student, whose name was not disclosed, received a three-month jail sentence and walked free for time already served. “The 10-minute interval between hearing of his sister’s immoral actions and meeting her face to face is proof that he did not plot the murder,” a court statement said.
The young man had turned himself in to the police after the murder claiming he acted to “cleanse the family’s honor” and initially received a six-month prison sentence. But the court slashed the verdict by half and changed the charge from premeditated murder to a misdemeanor “because the defendant killed his sister in a fit of rage,” in line with Article 98 of the penal code, the daily said.
It also argued that the “victim brought disgrace to her family and the defendant and tarnished their honor (because) her actions were against religion and social norms” in the Muslim country. The court said it also opted for a reduced sentence “because his family dropped the charges against him and because he is a student.”
Medical sources quoted by the Jordan Times, however, said an autopsy performed on the victim after the murder showed that the woman had not been sexually active before she was killed. But the court countered: “It is possible the victim had changed her clothes ... before she was killed to hide evidence that would show she was engaged in an illegitimate affair.”
—Additional input from agencies
