Mission & Justice

Rana Husseini; 9/10/08

The criminal prosecutor on Wednesday charged a 25-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his father in the Jordan Valley a day earlier, official sources said. The suspect, a farmer, turned himself in to the police and reportedly confessed to murdering his father at dawn on Tuesday to prevent him from killing his sister, one official source told The Jordan Times. “The victim, who was released recently from prison as part of an amnesty before the Eid holiday, had been jailed for almost seven years for killing two of his daughters in so-called honour crimes,” the source told The Jordan Times. The suspect also told interrogators that he “killed his 65-year-old father because both his teenage sisters who were murdered were innocent of any wrongdoing”.

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Khetam Malkawi; 9/10/08

When Rawdha Sarhan first suspected that she might have breast cancer, she was afraid of seeing a doctor and being diagnosed with the disease. The 62-year-old breast cancer survivor, however, overcame her fears and immediately consulted a doctor. “Being diagnosed with breast cancer was difficult and I needed a lot of patience to live with the situation and undergo the required treatment,” Sarhan told The Jordan Times. But The early detection helped her survive cancer, and she went on to advise women of all ages to have regular check-ups to avoid succumbing to the disease. Their experience with breast cancer led Sarhan and other survivors to establish “Sanad”, a support group for breast cancer patients at the King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC).

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9/10/08

A New York-based human rights group accused Jordan’s security services Wednesday of carrying out widespread torture in the country’s jails. The Human Rights Watch report comes a year after the UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said he found evidence of systematic abuse in at least two Jordanian detention facilities but did not believe torture was widespread in the country. “Torture in Jordan’s prison system is widespread, even two years after King Abdullah II called for reforms to stop it once and for all,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. Jordanian officials have repeatedly denied torture claims.

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Rana Husseini; 10/5/08

The criminal prosecutor on Saturday charged a physically disabled man with the manslaughter of his niece in the latest so-called honour crime this year, according to an official source. The victim received three bullet wounds to her head and chest on Friday, purportedly by the suspect who phoned the police and informed them that he killed his niece to cleanse his family’s honour, the source told The Jordan Times.He handed officers who rushed to the house the gun he allegedly used in the murder and told the police that he killed his unmarried niece, because he suspected she was involved in an “illegitimate affair” based on rumours, the source said. The victim was visiting her uncle’s house with the rest of her family when an argument ensued, the source added, citing initial investigations into the case.

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Rana Husseini; 27/9/08

The Criminal Court has sentenced a 25-year-old man to death after convicting him of robbing and murdering two men in Maan in December 2006. The court declared Abdul Mahdi W. guilty of shooting Marwan Deeb to death and running over Wasfi Ali in a deserted area near the city of Maan on December 3 and handed him the death sentence. The same tribunal acquitted a second man standing trial on the same charges of premeditated murder and robbery, for lack of evidence. Court papers said the defendant’s father owned a jewellery shop, which the two victims visited on regular basis because they worked in a jewellery factory.

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Joseph Krauss; 26/9/08

As Israeli holidaymakers watch the Dead Sea retreating, leaving massive sinkholes in its wake, Palestinian farmers farther up the valley pry crops from increasingly parched soil. The Jordan Valley is in the grip of a severe water crisis, exacerbated by the region’s various conflicts, that threatens the livelihoods of its Israeli and Arab residents. And it is transforming the landscape before their eyes. The Ein Gedi spa, built 40 years ago on the shore of the Dead Sea - the lowest point on Earth - now offers a tractor shuttle to carry bathers across the kilometre of salt flats that separate it from the water’s edge. A few kilometres up the shore, a campsite that used to rent out cabins by the sea has been sucked underground by the opening of cavernous sinkholes, some more than 30 metres wide.

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26/9/08

His Majesty King Abdullah gave directives on Thursday to build a welfare house to provide care for orphaned young women and victims of family disintegration. The institution would seek to fully integrate inmates into the community through providing accommodation and care for girls who leave orphanages and other care institutions after they turn 18, a top official said. To be supervised by the Ministry of Social Development, the project will serve young women up to 20 years old who are victims of family disintegration and do not have safe homes. The young women will be provided with comprehensive care at the facility. The project consists of several fully equipped “villas” that offer an appropriate atmosphere to rehabilitate the young women psychologically, socially, academically and professionally so that they are empowered to lead normal lives and build careers, Minister of Social Development Hala Latouf told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Thursday.

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Rana Husseini; 22/9/08

A 33-year-old man was charged on Sunday with the premeditated murder of his cousin in the latest so-called honour murder in the Kingdom, official sources said. The 29-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, was reportedly shot once in the heart, allegedly by the suspect on Friday night, an official source told The Jordan Times. The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where attending doctors attempted to save his life, but were unable to do so because the bullet penetrated his heart, the source explained. Meanwhile, the suspect fled to an unknown destination after the shooting and was arrested by the authorities the following day, the source added. In his initial confession to investigators, the suspect said he shot his relative after suspecting that he was “involved in an affair with his divorced sister”

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19/9/08

A four-day stoppage in the supply of water to the Kingdom from Lake Tiberias, which started last Tuesday, is scheduled to end Saturday morning with the resumption of water pumping at the lake, a source at the ministry said on Thursday.Israeli authorities have informed the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of the stoppage, a source at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation said Thursday, adding that Israel will supply the Kingdom with the 720,000 cubic metres of water due to be allocated during the four-day period over the next few weeks. The reported reason behind the break in water supply is poor precipitation during the most recent rainy season, which affected Lake Tiberias’s water level, according to the ministry. Currently, the lake’s water level is close to the “red line”, a point at which pumping must be stopped.

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Mohammed Abdu Yamani; 19/9/08
Fasting is a unique moral and spiritual characteristic of Islam. It does not mean just abstaining completely from food, drink, sex and smoking from the break of dawn till sunset during the whole month of Ramadan. Fasting is meant to teach us essential values such as patience, sacrifice and humility. Ramadan is a great month in which Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) received the first verses of the Holy Qur’an through revelation. The first battle of Islam against the infidels took place in Ramadan. It is a pity that some young Muslims do not know the holiness of this month. They turn it into a month of sleeping and laziness. Some of them spend the whole night playing cards or watching TV. They go to bed after sunrise and sometimes miss noon or afternoon prayers, which is a great sin.

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