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Friday, March 29, 2024

Pinay convict executed in Saudi

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A 39-year-old Filipina domestic convicted of murder was executed in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

“The department regrets that it was not able to save the life of the Filipina after the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council classified her case as one in which blood money does not apply under Shariah law,” the DFA said in a statement, referring to the compensation that is paid to the family of murder victims in the hope that the death penalty will not be carried out.

The DFA declined to identify the Filipina’s identity, citing her family’s request for privacy.

It said the Philippine Embassy had provided her with a lawyer to assist her in all stages of the trial, sent representatives to visit her, and gave her family in the Philippines regular updates about her case.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the recent execution was one reason the Philippines should not reinstate the death penalty as the administration wants to do.

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“We lose the argument of respecting our culture which abhors the taking of a human life by a cold formal state justice system when we believe that a state exists to protect life,” he said in a Twitter post.

The Palace said the government “tried very hard” to save the overseas Filipino worker, and expressed its condolences to the family of the household worker who was found guilty of murder in 2015.

In previous cases, Filipino prisoners in the oil-rich kingdom were saved from the death row by paying blood money to the families of people they had killed in self-defense.

In 2014, Carlito Lana was beheaded for shooting a Saudi national and running him over with a car.

Saudi authorities then executed Filipino construction worker Joselito Zapanta the next year for killing his Sudanese employer.

A report released last year by the Philippine Statistics Authority shows a quarter of the 2.3 million Filipino workers abroad were in Saudi Arabia, making the oil-rich kingdom the top job destination. With Nat Mariano

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