Jordan: Pregnant Woman's Throat Slit and Belly Cut Open in Honour Killing

A pregnant woman's throat was slit and her belly cut open in yet another incidence of a series of 'honour killing' crimes in Jordan.

According to Jordanian police, they found a burned body of a pregnant woman whose throat was slit and belly cut open, exposing her four-month-old fetus.

The police further said on 14 April (Sunday) that the death seems to be an apparent case of "honour killing".

"We found the body of the woman at dawn in Ruseifeh (east of Amman). Her throat was slit in a hideous way. The body was burned after the murder," a police spokesman was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

"We believe it was an honour crime. The belly of the woman, who was in her twenties, was cut open and we could see her four-month-old unborn child, who was dead too. Investigations are still under way."

Honour killing crimes are common occurrences in the Arab kingdom with multiple cases being reported every year.

Though honour killing is a punishable offence in the Arab world, the defendants are usually given light punishments for such crimes.

In the neighbouring Palestinian territories, article 18 of the 1936 Penal Code entitled "Necessity," provides for "leniency in punishment for crimes that offenders have committed in order to avert consequences, which could cause irreparable damage to their honor, money, or the honour of those such offenders are obliged to protect."

Palestinian appeals court judge Ziad Thabet, in an interview with Al-Monitor last month said that three years in prison was the stiffest punishment for honour killing while life sentences or execution are never a consideration.