The family of the suspect in the killing of an American mother in Ireland this month has complained of “racist” and “negative” comments online about their son, who has been arrested in his native Jordan.
Jamey Carney, a 43-year-old mother who had emigrated from the United States to Ireland, was allegedly suffocated to death after having been beaten around the head in her home in Killarney, Ireland.
Her former boyfriend — a failed asylum seeker from Jordan, Ahmad Al-Saqar — is reported to have promptly left the country after Carney’s death, flying to Turkey and ultimately to the homeland, which does not have an extradition treaty with Ireland.
However, according to Dublin’s online newspaper The Journal, Al-Saqar has nevertheless been arrested by Jordan’s Public Security Directorate.
It is unclear why exactly he has been detained, given that Ireland’s Gardaí police force has yet to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Saqar, whom they have only so far described as the “main person of interest” in relation to the killing.
The Irish outlet further reported that the family of the failed asylum seeker have issued a statement vowing to take legal action against “defamation” or “racist incitement” over social media posts concerning their son.
The family said that they have hired a “legal team” to submit evidence to the Cybercrime Unit of the Jordanian police, after allegedly facing “malicious attempts” to “spread racism and sow division among the people of our united Jordanian and Palestinian community.”
The family went on to assert that people online have been “insulting the dignity of the young man and the reputation of the Al-Suqour tribe throughout the country”.
They said that legal action would be forthcoming for anyone who “insults members of the tribe or their family” and their “tribal customs and traditions”.
“We trust the judiciary and the course of justice. We will not allow any platform or irresponsible individual to turn themselves into judge and jury,” they said.
While there has yet to be any official indication as to the potential motive behind the killing of Carney, the Irish Independent reported that in the week before her death, she had shown a message from Al-Saqar asking for €5,000 from her. The paper said that this has been confirmed by officers who examined her phone.
The Independent went on to report that Al-Saqar had told a former roommate that he and Carney had been married under Islamic law in a mosque earlier this year. The couple are said to have met at a pro-Palestine demonstration over two years ago.
Commenting on the case, the American Ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, said that he had been “saddened and shaken” over the killing of Carney, whom he described as a “person of extraordinary compassion, generosity and humanity”.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to Jamey’s daughter, her mother, her sister and all who loved her. Our thoughts are especially with her child, who now faces an unimaginable loss.”
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