Couple torture adopted child to death, receive life sentence in Jordan

The Grand Criminal Court in Amman issued a life sentence with hard labor against a Jordanian man and his American wife for murder with severe torture.

The sentence was issued based on Articles 327/3 and 64 of the Jordanian Penal Code, after the couple was convicted for torturing their eight-year-old adopted child to death.

The child was put in a bathtub filled with extremely hot water and left there for hours.

The court proved that the convicted husband and wife wanted to "get rid of the four children and kill them," by beating and torture.

They reportedly hit them with wooden sticks and poured hot water on their bodies almost every day.

According to the indictment, in June 2021, the child came back home from school with bad grades, so the parents punished him, with prior intent to kill, by pouring hot water on his body that day and the day after.

The couple called the Civil Defense to take him to a private hospital, after the child reached the point were he was close to death, and he passed away soon after.

The autopsy report revealed that the boy suffered from second-degree burns all over his body, in addition to the multiple bruises due to "impact with a solid object."

- Background information -

The accused husband and wife came to Jordan in 2011 with the aim of settling down.

For health reasons, the couple were not able to have children of their own, which led them to adopt four children (three boys and one girl) from Colombia back in 2016.

According to the indictment, the 43-year-old man and 38-year-old woman brought the children to Jordan and were granted the Jordanian nationality and national numbers.

Notably, the ages of the adopted children are eleven, nine, eight and five.

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