Gulf | Kuwait
Top Kuwaiti court upholds maid's death penalty
A Kuwaiti appeals court upheld on Tuesday the death sentence for a Filipina housemaid, convicted of killing her employer's seven-year-old son, the woman's lawyer said.
- AP
- Published: 00:05 April 3, 2008
Kuwait City: A Kuwaiti appeals court upheld on Tuesday the death sentence for a Filipina housemaid, convicted of killing her employer's seven-year-old son, the woman's lawyer said.
Attorney Faisal Al Mattar said the ruling of the Cassation Court, the country's highest appeals point, was final.
The ruling did not have an explanation, but the lawyer said it routinely takes weeks for the tribunal to make the explanation available.
The 25-year-old maid, identified in legal documents here as May Membriri Vecina, was convicted of slitting the throat of seven-year-old Salem Al Otaibi with a kitchen knife in January 2007.
She was also found guilty of attempted murder of the boy's 11-year-old brother Abdullah and 18-year-old sister Hajar, who both survived. She was first sentenced to death by a criminal court last July.
The conviction and sentence were then upheld by an appeals court in September, and it automatically went to the highest tribunal.
Al Mattar says that Vecina, a mother of two, had complained of mistreatment by her employer and that she has said she deplores her actions. She had allegedly told the court that her employer's wife called her names in front of other people, just minutes before she undertook the deadly attack.
"She was temporarily insane," Al Mattar said. "She insists she regrets the crime ... and she thought of killing herself in remorse," he added.
Death sentences are carried out by hanging in the country.
The lawyer said Vecina's life could be spared if the victim's father forgives her and gives up his legal rights in return for blood money.
Another domestic helper from the Philippines, Marilou Ranario, 33, also faces death by hanging in Kuwait after being convicted of murdering her employer in 2005.
More than 500,000 domestic helpers from Asian countries work in Kuwait, which has a population of over three million. Complaints of non-payment of salaries and physical abuse are common among them.
Manila speak: We will try to save her
The Philippine presidential palace has said it will continue to find ways to save May Vecina.
Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo, in a statement, said: "We are saddened by the Cassation Court's decision on May Vecina. However, our government will not stop in finding ways to save her."
The Philippine government as a policy, provides help to Filipinos in distress in another country, he said.
"God willing, she will be among the hundreds of overseas Filipino workers released from prisons around the world every year," he said.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Noli de Castro who is also the Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers, said that the Department of Foreign Affairs is extending every possible assistance to Vecina.
- Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent
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