POLICE said they had charged a Jordanian with premeditated murder after his 23-year-old sister and her boyfriend were shot dead in an apparent “honour killing”. “The suspect shot his sister four times and her Syrian shepherd boyfriend six times when he caught them (together) red-handed early on Sunday” in the eastern Shumari natural reserve near the desert city of Azraq, a spokesman said. “He turned himself in shortly after the crime, and forensic tests proved that his sister was still a virgin when she was murdered.” The spokesman said two of the suspect’s cousins had been charged as accessories to the crime, the third such killing this year. Jordanian authorities recorded a total of 17 so-called “honour” killings in 2007, slightly up on previous years. The killers often receive light sentences if convicted, as parliament has twice refused to reform the penal code despite pressure from human rights groups to end the near impunity of the perpetrators.