A Jordanian has confessed to slitting his sister's throat and stabbing her 20 times in the face and chest because she was rarely home, apparently “to cleanse the family honor,” police said Tuesday.

“People last night found the body of a girl in her twenties. She had been stabbed 20 times in face and chest before she had her throat slit,” a police spokesman said.

“Police arrested her brother, who confessed to committing the crime because his sister spent so little time at the family home. His confession indicates that he sought to cleanse the family honor.”

On April 15, police said they found the burned body of a pregnant woman whose throat had been slit and belly cut open showing her four-month-old fetus, in an apparent “honor killing”.

Between 15 and 20 women die in so-called “honor” murders each year in the Arab kingdom, despite government efforts to curb such crimes.

Murder is punishable by death in Jordan, but in “honor killings” courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency.