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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: 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
Tuesday.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Arab Times said Jakatia
Mandon Pawa was found guilty of killing a 20-year-old woman at a
suburb in Mubarak Al-Kabeer in Qurain district, south of Kuwait
City.
The paper reported that 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 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 toward Jakatia,” the Arab Times reported.
The report said Jakatia stabbed and killed her
employer on May 14 as she was sleeping in her room. 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 not mentioned in the story.
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 domestic helpers.
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 7-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
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.
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