Philippine murder convict founds guilty under 'Islamic Shariah law' in Saudi Arabia, gets executed

January 31, 2019:

According to Islamic law, the "blood money" system allows the commutation of a capital sentence for murder if the family of the victim accepts payment in lieu of the punishment.

During the trial, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh provided legal assistance to the woman, sent representatives to meet her in prison and kept her family informed of developments.

The Department has withheld details of the crime.

The controversy over abuse and exploitation of Filipino workers abroad escalated in Feb 2018 when the body of Joanna Demafelis, a 29-yr old Filipino maid, was found in the freezer of her employers' house in Kuwait after she had been missing for a year.

The incident led to President Rodrigo Duterte banning Filipino workers from going to Kuwait, which later expelled the Philippine Ambassador, although the two countries normalized ties in May and the ban was lifted.

According to official data, around 3,000 Filipinos leave the country every day on temporary foreign work permits, with many heading to Arab countries, where women tend to work as domestic help while men are mostly employed in the construction sector.

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