MANILA, Philippines — A Kuwaiti court handed down a death sentence on a woman for the murder of her Filipino domestic helper, Jeanelyn Villavende, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said late Wednesday.
“Thank you Kuwait. The Criminal Court sentence[d] a Kuwaiti citizen to death for the murder of her Filipino household worker,” Locsin said over Twitter.
Philippine embassy lawyer Fawziya Al Sabah said the court decision was fair and in accordance with law and Sharia (Islamic law) “as the accused assaulted her Filipino employee for days and imprisoned her in a room until her death,” according to Locsin.
Thank you Kuwait. The Criminal Court sentence a Kuwaiti citizen to death for the murder of her Filipino household worker, Jeannelyn Villavende. The PE lawyer Fawziya Al Sabah (thank you for your service, sir) said the Court’s decision was fair and in accordance with…
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) December 30, 2020
“To my brother, the Kuwait Ambassador to the [Philippine], I owe you a debt of blood gratitude. My thanks and that of my nation and people is eternal,” Locsin added.
Villavende died in a hospital on Dec. 28 last year, according to Kuwaiti authorities.
Her murder prompted the government to ban the deployment of maids to Kuwait earlier this year. The ban has already been lifted.
An embalming certificate from the Kuwaiti government showed that Villavende died of “acute failure of heart and respiration” as a result of shock and multiple injuries in the vascular nervous system.
But a separate autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation showed that Villavende’s brain, heart, and some internal organs were missing and that she also suffered multiple, severe traumatic injuries, including on her genitals – an indication that she was sexually abused.
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