Zamboanga Maid Who Killed Employer To Die By Hanging In Kuwait

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 22, 2008) - A Filipino woman, accused of murdering her employer’s daughter in Kuwait, has been sentenced to death after a court found her guilty of the charges, reports said on Tuesday.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times said Jakatia Mandon Pawa was found guilty of killing the 20-year old woman at a suburb in Mubarak Al-Kabeer, one of the governorates of Kuwait.

It said the Kuwaiti Court of Appeals Judge Mohammed Bu Slaib upheld the verdict of a lower court. Death sentences in Kuwait are carried out by hanging.

The 31-year old Filipino maid is a native of Zamboanga del Norte province in Mindanao Island.

“In a previous session, Jakatia’s lawyer argued his client had no criminal intent as there is no evidence proving that she intentionally killed the victim. He then requested the court to acquit his client, refer to a committee from the Psychiatric Hospital to check on her mental status or, at least, show maximum leniency towards Jakatia,” the Arab Times reported.

It said Jakatia stabbed and killed her employer on May 14 in Qurain district, south of Kuwait City. The woman was sleeping in her room when Jakatia attacked her. After the killing, Jakatia jumped from the second floor of the house and injured herself. She was rushed to hospital and stayed there for several days.

The verdict was the newspaper’s front page story, but the motive of the killing was unclear. The report did not say why Jakatia attacked the woman.

In December 2007, Filipino maid Marilou Ranario was also sentenced to death for killing her employer, but the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah commuted the sentence to life after President Gloria Arroyo visited the country where more than 73,000 Filipinos work, mostly as housemaids.

It was the third time that a death sentence has been handed down against a Filipino worker in recent months.

In April this year, the Kuwaiti Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against May Vecina for killing the seven-year old son of her Kuwaiti employer and attempting to kill the victim’s elder sister and brother. But the Emir also commuted Vecina’s death conviction to life after the Philippine government appealed to spare her life.

Kuwaiti courts found Vecina guilty of killing her Salem Sulaiman Al-Otaib on January 6, 2007. She also attempted to kill the victim's 13-year old brother Abdulla by slitting the boy's throat and his 17-year old sister Hajer by stabbing her.

At her trial, the Filipino maid claimed that she suffered physical and mental abuse from her employer, which led her to lose her mind. (Mindanao Examiner)

Zamboanga Maid Abused In Dubai Flies Back Home

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 29 Mar) – A Filipino maid, who was abused by her employers in Dubai, is set to return to her native home in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines.

But the 21-year old Faija Salamat has reasons to come home happy despite her ordeal in the hands of a Kuwaiti woman and her Iraqi husband after a court in Dubai found the couple guilty.

Salamat was subjected to gratuitous torture and violence at the hands of her female Kuwaiti employer and an Iraqi man last July until her escape.

The two were jailed on February 27 having been sentenced to three years followed by deportation. They were found guilty of sexual harassment, battery and illegal detention, the Dubai-based online news site 7DAYS reported on Thursday.

The couple allegedly admitted torturing Salamat like she was a prisoner at the Abu Ghraib, a notorious U.S. military facility in Iraq.

“All I can think of now is to be with my family,” 7DAYS quoted Salamat as saying.

“I’m so excited to see my parents and my seven siblings back home. I just want to be home as soon as possible. I feel anxious - the memory of the cruel abuse continues to haunt me,” she said.

Salamat, a high school graduate, left home when she was only 18, to work as a housemaid in Kuwait in 2003 before working in Dubai eight months ago.

“I’d like to forget all about it and move on. At night, I sometimes cry myself to sleep when I remember them and the torture,” she said.

Salamat said her employers would undress her and touched her intimately and often times would stub lit cigarettes near her private parts. They also burned her with hot coals and scrub ice cubes on her body.

She said she was kept in a room for three days before forcing the door open and fleeing to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai.

“I don’t think I can forgive them for the awful things they have done to me. I hope that it will serve as a lesson for employers not to mistreat and subject maids to physical and psychological abuse,” Salamat said.

It was not immediately known where Salamat’s family is residing in Zamboanga City and the Department of Social Welfare and Development said it has to receive a report from the Philippines’ Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) about the young Muslim woman.

“We have no reports about Faija Salamat or anything about her case. We have to receive an endorsement from the OWWA so we can take an immediate action about this as soon as she arrives home,” a local social welfare assistant Maryann Boncaras told the Mindanao Examiner on Thursday. (Mindanao Examiner)