overseas Filipinos

Kuwaiti boss sentenced to death for killing of Filipina domestic worker

Aika Rey

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Kuwaiti boss sentenced to death for killing of Filipina domestic worker
The Kuwait Criminal Court hands down the decision on Jeanelyn Villavende's murder

The Kuwait Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 30 sentenced the woman employer of domestic worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende, who was killed in December 2019.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr confirmed the news in a tweet Wednesday evening.

“The court’s decision was fair and in accordance with the law and Sharia, as the accused assaulted her Filipino employee for days and imprisoned her in a room until her death,” said Locsin, quoting lawyer Sheikha Fawzia al-Sabah.

ABS-CBN reported on Wednesday that the husband of the employer was sentenced to 4 years of jail for not reporting the crime.

Villavende was sexually abused and physically battered for weeks, before she died at the hands of her employer.

Villavende had repeatedly asked to be brought back home to the Philippines at least 3 months before she died in December 2019, though her pleas to her recruitment agency went unanswered.

Following the killing of Villavende, the Department of Labor and Employment issued a total ban on the deployment of workers to Kuwait on January 15, because of the violation of the bilateral agreement on protecting Filipino workers.

The deployment ban to Kuwait was lifted a month later, after murder charges were filed against Villavende’s employers. – Rappler.com

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Aika Rey

Aika Rey is a business reporter for Rappler. She covered the Senate of the Philippines before fully diving into numbers and companies. Got tips? Find her on Twitter at @reyaika or shoot her an email at aika.rey@rappler.com.