Gulf  Crime Monitor

2 Filipinos Sentenced to 350 Lashes

RIYADH, 22July 2003 — Two Filipino workers have been sentenced to 350 lashes each for retracting their previous statements in a murder case before the Riyadh Emergency Court, while another Filipino suspect implicated in the same case has been acquitted without corporal punishment, the Arab News reported. The case involves the murder of a Saudi official named Fahad Al-Otaibi working for a Saudi law enforcement agency.

“The three — Joselito Alejo, Romeo Cordova and Ramiro Esmero — are currently in the custody of the embassy after their acquittal by the court two weeks ago,” the Arab News quoted Mariano A. Dumia, minister at the Philippine Embassy. “But Alejo and Esmero are awaiting the schedule for the 350lashes, while the embassy is trying to reach some sort of reconciliation,” said Dumia adding that the diplomatic mission was working to approach the Saudi government with a request for clemency. The three Filipinos were arrested on grounds which were not very convincing, the paper said quoting him . “But we are happy that they have been acquitted by the Saudi judicial system.”The350 -lash punishment for the two Filipinos will be applied in five70 -lash installments, once a week for a five-week period.

Each weekly lashing will be followed by a medical examination by Saudi authorities before the Filipinos are returned to the Philippine Embassy.Of late, several Filipino workers have been detained and arrested on various charges. Recently, a Filipina nurse named Violeta Miranda was found guilty of drug possession was sentenced to seven months in prison and 150 lashes, the Arab News report said.

She was later deported to Manila. Nearly every year during the holy month of Ramadan, a number of Filipino prisoners are pardoned and released by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd in response to requests from the Philippine government for royal clemency. (keralamonitor.com)