BEIRUT”•The employers of a Filipino maid found dead in a freezer in Kuwait were both arrested in the Syrian capital Damascus, Lebanese and Philippine officials said Saturday.
Syrian authorities surrendered Nader Essam Assaf to Beirut on Friday because of his Lebanese citizenship, but his Syrian wife Mona remains in custody in Damascus, a Lebanese judicial official said.
The murder of Joanna Demafelis sparked outrage in the Philippines and prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to impose a departure ban on the Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait.
But the head of the Philippines’ Labor
department said the decision on whether to lift or not to lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait was up to President Rodrigo Duterte.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III made the statement following the arrest of the suspects in the death of Demafelis.
“It will be the President who will decide on that,” Bello said when asked if they would issue a recommendation on the deployment ban.
The body of Demafelis, 29, which allegedly showed signs of torture, was found earlier this month inside a freezer in the abandoned apartment unit of the detained couple.
The two suspects have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt since Demafelis’ body was found more than a year after her family reported her missing.
“The couple were arrested in Damascus. They were the subject of an Interpol red notice and the Syrian authorities handed the husband over to Lebanese custody on Friday morning,” the official said.
“Syria kept custody of the wife because she is a Syrian national,” he added.
“Lebanon has asked Kuwait to pass on the husband’s police record.”
The official said that after leaving Kuwait, the couple had made a very brief stopover in Lebanon before traveling on to neighboring Syria.
The Philippines’ Foreign Affairs department also confirmed the second arrest in a statement late Saturday.
“With the two suspects now in custody, [Philippine authorities] will follow President Duterte’s instructions to vigorously pursue justice for Demafelis,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.
Duterte has vowed to bring justice to Demafelis’s family, lashing out at Gulf state Kuwait and alleging Arab employers routinely rape Filipinas, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.
Kuwait has said it is investigating the reported deaths and abuses, and insisted there were only a small number considering that there are more than 250,000 Filipinos working in the emirate.
Duterte this week sent a team of labor officials to Kuwait to seek greater protection for migrant workers. with PNA
