MANILA, Philippines – A Swedish actor-director faces a murder case after allegedly killing his 28-year-old Filipina wife, Mailyn Conde Sinambong, said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday, October 2. 

The DFA said that based on initial information gathered by the Philippine embassy in Oslo, Sinambong “succumbed to injuries she sustained after she was severely beaten allegedly by her husband, Steve Abou Bakr Aalam, a 50-year-old Swedish actor-director, at their residence in Kista, northwest of Stockholm, on the evening of Sunday, September 23.” 

“The reports said Aalam has been taken into custody and will be charged with murder,” the DFA said.

Sinambong was a mother of two boys aged 10 and 4, the DFA added.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano vowed that the DFA “will assist in the repatriation of her remains and in obtaining justice for her death.” 

Philippine Ambassador to Norway Jocelyn Batoon Garcia on Monday, October 1, called Sinambong’s mother, Maria Monato, who is in Cebu, to extend the DFA’s condolences.

Sinambong’s Norway-based relative, Lugina Eliasen, is helping bring back the victim’s body to the Philippines. A Swedish lawyer, Silvia Ingolfdottir Akermark, was assigned to handle Sinambong’s case, the DFA said. – Rappler.com