{"id":154124,"date":"2018-02-24T22:02:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T03:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=154124"},"modified":"2018-02-24T22:02:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T03:02:41","slug":"palace-welcomes-arrest-of-primary-suspect-in-demafelis-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/24\/palace-welcomes-arrest-of-primary-suspect-in-demafelis-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace welcomes arrest of primary suspect in Demafelis murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In a text message to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. also said he hopes that the principal suspects would also be punished for the torture and murder of the 29-year-old domestic helper from Sara, Iloilo. (PCOO PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday welcomed the arrest of one of the principal suspects in the murder of overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

In a text message to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. also said he hopes that the principal suspects would also be punished for the torture and murder of the 29-year-old domestic helper from Sara, Iloilo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thankful for the arrest but hoping that they be prosecuted and punished for Joanna’s murder,” said Roque.<\/p>\n

Asked if the government would also hold Demafelis’ recruiters accountable for the incident, Roque said President Rodrigo R. Duterte had asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to summon them.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced the arrest of the suspect the same day the President visited Demefelis\u2019 wake in her home province.<\/p>\n

Duterte also assured her family that the government will seek justice for her and other OFWs abused by their employers abroad.<\/p>\n

Nader Essam Assaf, a Lebanese national, together with his wife, Mona, a Syrian national, have been tagged as principal suspects in Demafelis’ death.<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano earlier said he expects Kuwaiti authorities to request the extradition of Assaf so he could stand trial in Kuwait.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssaf\u2019s arrest is a critical first step in our quest for justice for Joanna and we are thankful to our friends in Kuwait and Lebanon for their assistance,\u201d Cayetano said.<\/p>\n

The DFA said Assaf and his wife have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt after Kuwaiti authorities discovered early this month the battered body of Demafelis inside a freezer in the couple\u2019s abandoned apartment unit more than a year after her family reported her missing.<\/p>\n

Kuwaiti authorities relayed the arrest of Assaf to Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa during a meeting at the Ministry of Interior on Thursday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday welcomed the arrest of one of the principal suspects in the murder of overseas Filipino worker …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":152750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[15350,46759,4326,978,47199],"class_list":["post-154124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-harry-roque-jr","tag-joanna-demafelis","tag-kuwait","tag-malacanang","tag-primary-suspect","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}