Honour Killing in Amman....

She married without permission....

A MAN has been charged with shooting dead his pregnant sister for marrying without family permission, after luring her to another brother's wedding in a conspiracy with him, police say.

"The 30-year-old suspect shot his 23-year-old pregnant sister, who worked as a nurse, four times in the head and other parts of her body on Wednesday, while she was attending the wedding of another brother," a police spokesman said today.

"The mother of a baby boy got married two years ago without the family's permission after she ran away from home" in Madaba, south of the capital Amman, he said.

Police said that the woman's brothers "agreed to kill her in revenge".

"The men assured their sister that she would not be hurt and lured her to attend the wedding. The suspect killed her there, while her other two brothers severely beat the husband," the source said.

The key suspect has been charged with premeditated murder, and the other two as accessories.

Murder is punishable by the death penalty in Jordan, but in the case of so-called "honour killings", a court usually commutes or reduces sentences, particularly if the victim's family urges leniency.

About 15 to 20 women are murdered each year in Jordan in the name of honour, despite government efforts to fight such crimes. Parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher penalties.