AMMAN – The Criminal Court has sentenced a 27-year-old man to 10 years in prison after convicting him of murdering four of his sisters in Salt last year.

The tribunal declared N. M. guilty of committing murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

But the tribunal immediately reduced his sentence to 10 years because the victims’ family dropped charges against him.

The victims were aged between 20 and 26, according to the court verdict, and one of them was six months pregnant with a male foetus, it added.

The same tribunal acquitted four other male family members, including the victims’ father, from complicity in murder charges and instigating murder, due to a “lack of evidence”.

Almost two years before the incident, one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the defendant accusing him of sexually assaulting her, court transcripts said.

The defendant was tried at the Criminal Court on molestation charges, but was acquitted one month before the murder.

More recently, the court added, the same victim filed a lawsuit accusing her father of sexual assault and he was subsequently arrested and detained.

“The four victims all testified against their father, which angered the defendant so he invited them to dinner to discuss the matter on May 17,” the court said.

During dinner, the court added, the defendant tried to convince his sisters to drop charges or change their testimony as their father would otherwise end up in jail for at least 15 years, but they refused.

“Instead, one of the victims threatened the defendant that she would file a case against him, which angered him and he drew a gun he was carrying and shot them all,” the court said.

Some of the victims tried to escape and run to other rooms, but he followed them and shot them all to death, according to court documents.

The defendant immediately headed to the Balqa Governorate police station, turned himself in and handed the gun used in the shooting to officers on duty, the court added.

The tribunal decided to amend the premeditated murder charges originally levelled against the defendant, because “it was clear… that the murders occurred following a heated argument and not because the defendant plotted to murder his sisters.”

The court also acquitted the defendant of charges of aborting the six-month-old foetus “because his intention was to kill his sister and not the foetus”.

Sunday’s verdict, handed down by judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Azzam Obeidat and Qassim Dughmi, will automatically be reviewed by the Court of Cassation within the next 30 days.