Appeal Filipina’s life sentence, government urged

A court in Kuwait has sentenced a Filipino domestic worker to life in prison for killing an Indian coworker last May, a migrants rights group said Monday.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said the Kuwait High Court found the 32-year-old woman from Cotabato City guilty and handed down a life sentence, which is equivalent to 20 years in prison.

“(The Filipino) was charged with murder for stabbing her coworker, a female Indian national, in an incident that happened on May 25, 2011,” Monterona said in a statement.

In court testimony, the Filipino said she and the victim had an argument after the Filipino played Koranic verses on her DVD player.

“The OFW (overseas Filipino worker) confessed that she stabbed her coworker only to defend herself from the latter who attacked her,” said Monterona.

The Kuwait High Court handed down the guilty verdict on December 13, he added.

Monterona said the sentence could be appealed.

“The embassy hired lawyer must immediately file an appeal for a reduction of her sentence, citing mitigating circumstances such as the self-defense claim of the OFW against her coworker who was the attacker and was bigger than her,” Monterona said.

He said Migrante will write the Assistance to Nationals Section of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait in behalf of the convicted OFW and her family to request that it file an appeal for a reduction of sentence.

Monterona, meanwhile, panned the commendation given by the United Nations to the Philippine government for its “exemplary efforts” in protecting OFWs in troubled countries such as Egypt and Libya.

He said the government’s “continued neglect” and unpreparedness to provide immediate assistance to OFWs in war-torn countries was exposed.