AMMAN — Police on Saturday were questioning a man and his brother in connection with the murder of a 26-year-old woman, who allegedly converted from Christianity to Islam, in Ajloun, 70km northwest of Amman.

 

The victim died after receiving several blows to the head with a wooden stick and a rock in a forest in Khirbet Wahadneh on May 1, a senior official source said.

 

“The victim’s father headed to a police station on Thursday evening and turned himself in, declaring that he killed his daughter,” the source told The Jordan Times.

 

In his initial confession to the police, the father reportedly said that “his daughter announced her conversion to Islam three months before the incident and therefore he murdered her.”

 

A second source told The Jordan Times that police are also questioning the victim’s uncle.

 

“Both men are in custody pending further investigation into the incident but the main suspect so far is the victim’s father,” the source said.

 

Pathologist Ali Shotar from Irbid’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine performed an autopsy on the victim and concluded that she died of a crushed skull that caused heavy bleeding, according to a medical source.

 

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry on Friday said that calm was restored in Ajloun following the murder of the woman a day earlier, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

 

“Limited clashes erupted on Thursday following the woman’s death which caused the government to dispatch gendarmerie forces to contain the situation,” Petra reported.

 

Eye witnesses said the clashes took place between Muslim and Christian residents of Khirbet Wahadneh on Thursday, one day after the murder.

 

They said the clashes between a limited number of protesters were unprecedented in the town.

 

The ministry said community leaders in Ajloun intervened and contributed to calming the situation.

 

Al Rai Correspondent in Ajloun Ali Freihat contributed to this report.