DFA moving to save Filipina on death row in Saudi

Department of Foreign Affairs. (Photo from the DFA Facebook account)

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday said it is exhausting all “diplomatic avenues and legal remedies” to save a Filipina sentenced with death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

“The Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said it will continue to assist the Filipina who was sentenced to death in 2017 for murdering her female employer in Makkah three years ago,” the DFA said in a statement.

The Saudi Court of Appeals affirmed the Filipina’s death sentence on Thursday. The OFW had told the court that she killed her employer in self defense.

Consul General Edgar Badajos claimed that the Consulate has been assisting the Filipina since the start of her trial by providing her with a lawyer and sending a representative to attend the hearings.

Badajos also said that the Filipina’s case has been referred to the Department of Justice, which is serving as chair of the Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking (IACAT), for the filing of appropriate charges against the recruiters of the OFW, who was just a minor when she was first deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2016. /jpv

RELATED STORY

OFW executed for murder in Saudi Arabia — DFA