The Philippine government is reportedly doing everything it can to save a Filipino domestic worker who has been on death row in Saudi Arabia since 2017, after being found guilty of killing her employer. The domestic worker’s appeal was rejected and her death sentence upheld by the Saudi Court of Appeals on Thursday.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Filipino domestic worker was handed the death penalty in 2017 for killing her female employer three years ago. The DFA did not disclose other details of the case, ABS-CBN News reported.
The DFA said the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah has been providing the domestic worker with legal aid since the start of her trial. They have provided her with a lawyer and representative to attend her trials.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will exhaust all diplomatic avenues and legal remedies to save a Filipina in Saudi Arabia after the Saudi Court of Appeals affirmed her death sentence on Thursday,” the DFA said.
Consul General Edgar Badajos said the Filipina was only a minor when she was employed in Saudi Arabia in 2016. Her case has been referred to the Philippine Department of Justice, which is chair of the Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking, so that her recruiters will face appropriate charges.
In January, a 39-year-old Filipino domestic worker was executed in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of murdering a Saudi man in 2015. The Saudi Supreme Judicial Council classified her case as one in which blood money does not apply under Shariah Law.
Read: Domestic worker guilty of murder executed in Saudi Arabia