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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20081015/twl-filipino-executed-for-murder-in-saud-3cd7efd.html
15/10/08
Filipino executed for murder in Saudi
A Filipino convict was beheaded in Saudi Arabia after the victim's family refused to forgive him, foreign department officials said Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Filipino, of the southern town of Sibungan, was executed on Tuesday after fatally stabbing and strangling a Saudi national guard in 2005 during an argument, Philippines foreign undersecretary Esteban Conejos said.
The sentence was carried out despite appeals by the Philippine government to the local emirs, the governor of Jeddah, and the minister of interior and a personal letter from President Gloria Arroyo to the Saudi king, asking for clemency.
Conejos said the victim's family was adamant in refusing to forgive the Filipino and insisted on the death penalty.
"The victim came from a very conservative tribe," he said.
Conejos said that under the sharia law of Saudi Arabia, murder results in a public and private liability.
While the Saudi king can forgive the public aspect of the case, he cannot extend clemency if the victim's family insists on their right to punishment.
Conejos said 40 Filipinos were facing the death penalty in various countries like China, Malaysia, Kuwait, Brunei, the United States and Saudi Arabia for offences ranging from rape and drug smuggling to murder.
Since 2006, 64 Filipinos have been on death row but the government has managed to get 24 death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, Conejos said.
About 10 percent of the Philippine population of 90 million people work abroad.
15/10/08
Filipino executed for murder in Saudi
A Filipino convict was beheaded in Saudi Arabia after the victim's family refused to forgive him, foreign department officials said Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Filipino, of the southern town of Sibungan, was executed on Tuesday after fatally stabbing and strangling a Saudi national guard in 2005 during an argument, Philippines foreign undersecretary Esteban Conejos said.
The sentence was carried out despite appeals by the Philippine government to the local emirs, the governor of Jeddah, and the minister of interior and a personal letter from President Gloria Arroyo to the Saudi king, asking for clemency.
Conejos said the victim's family was adamant in refusing to forgive the Filipino and insisted on the death penalty.
"The victim came from a very conservative tribe," he said.
Conejos said that under the sharia law of Saudi Arabia, murder results in a public and private liability.
While the Saudi king can forgive the public aspect of the case, he cannot extend clemency if the victim's family insists on their right to punishment.
Conejos said 40 Filipinos were facing the death penalty in various countries like China, Malaysia, Kuwait, Brunei, the United States and Saudi Arabia for offences ranging from rape and drug smuggling to murder.
Since 2006, 64 Filipinos have been on death row but the government has managed to get 24 death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, Conejos said.
About 10 percent of the Philippine population of 90 million people work abroad.
