A 24-year-old woman, convicted of murdering two children...

A 24-year-old woman, convicted of murdering two children in March 2002, was executed at dawn, in Jordan.
Ibtisam H. was first sentenced to life imprisonment by the Criminal Court in January 2003, after being convicted of manslaughter in the death of Fatmeh, 5, and Ahmad, 6. The woman pushed the children into the Jordan Valley Canal where they drowned.
The prosecution said the motive behind the defendant's crime was revenge against a man she loved who married another woman.
However, the Cassation Court ? which reviewed the sentence for almost three months ? overturned the Criminal Court verdict and returned the case to the court asking for the death penalty. In July 2003, the Criminal Court sentenced the woman to death, changing the conviction to premeditated murder.
Court papers said a few months prior to the incident the defendant met a man who promised to marry her, but his father refused and insisted he marry another woman instead.
When the defendant heard the news, she lured the man's siblings with sweets and chocolates, brought them to the canal and pushed them one after the other into the water, court transcripts said. When the children began screaming for help, the woman fled the scene so no one would see her, the court added. Government and prison officials attended the execution, the first to be carried out in the Kingdom this year.