Syrian court finds Demafelis employer guilty of murder

FILE: A Lebanese national and his Syrian wife were sentenced to death by hanging in absentia by a Kuwaiti court on Sunday over the death of their Filipina maid whose body was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait. (RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA — The co-accused in the slaying of Filipina household worker Joanna Demafelis was found guilty of murder by the Syrian District Criminal Court, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported Monday.

“The DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs reports that the Syrian District Criminal Court found Mouna Ali Hassoun, accused in the Joana Demafelis case, guilty of murder,” it said in a statement.

“(The) DFA will continue to provide legal assistance to the family until justice is served,” it added.

Hassoun’s co-accused Lebanese husband, Nader Essam Assaf, was also charged with murder in Lebanon.

Hassoun is expected to be meted with a prison sentence ranging from eight to 15 years. The couple was earlier tried in absentia, found guilty of murder and meted the death penalty in Kuwait.

Undersecretary Arriola said the DFA will continue to provide legal assistance to the family until justice is served.

Demafelis was found frozen inside the abandoned apartment of Hassoun and her husband in Al-Shaab, Kuwait last year.

Autopsy showed Demafelis was beaten and tortured repeatedly, and that before she was stored in a freezer, she was already dead.

The discovery of her body, believed to have been kept inside the freezer for more than a year, sparked outrage in the country and led to the previous deployment ban of new Filipino workers to Kuwait.

The Philippine News Agency had sought the DFA for more details regarding the Syrian Court’s decision, but the department has yet to respond.