Lebanese man questioned after body of Filipina maid found in freezer
Suspect handed over to authorities in Lebanon after fleeing from Kuwait to Syria following sordid discovery, in case that highlights abuses suffered by domestic workers
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese authorities in Beirut are interrogating a man suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait, security and judicial officials said Saturday.
The February 6 discovery of Joanna Demafelis’s body in the apartment in Kuwait City, where it had reportedly been kept for more than a year, sparked outrage and refocused attention on the tragic plight of poor Filipinas toiling mostly as maids abroad. It prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to ban the deployment of new Filipino workers to Kuwait, where many abuses have been reported.
A senior official with Lebanon’s General Security Directorate refused to provide details other than that the man is being held by the agency and undergoing questioning.
A judicial official said Saturday Lebanese citizen Nader Essam Assaf was handed over by Syrian authorities to Lebanon Friday. He added that the man’s Syrian wife is in Syria.
The judicial official added that it appears that when Assaf felt that the case might be discovered in Kuwait, he fled to Syria along with his wife hoping that he would not be detained. Syrian authorities detained him and later handed him over to Lebanon as he is a Lebanese citizen, the official said.
“The couple were arrested in Damascus. They were the subject of an Interpol red notice and the Syrian authorities handed the husband over to Lebanese custody on Friday morning,” an official said.
“Syria kept custody of the wife because she is a Syrian national,” he added. “Lebanon has asked Kuwait to pass on the husband’s police record.”
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Lebanese media outlets reported that Assaf is from the northeastern region of Baalbek but he grew up in a neighborhood south of Beirut.
Assaf and his wife are suspects in Demafelis’ death.
On Friday, the Philippines’ foreign secretary said that the suspect is under arrest in Lebanon.
Duterte has vowed to bring justice to Demafelis’s family, lashing out at Gulf state Kuwait and alleging Arab employers routinely rape Filipina workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.
Kuwait has said it is investigating reported deaths and abuses, and insisted there were only a small number considering that there are more than 250,000 Filipinos working in the emirate.
Duterte this week sent a team of labor officials to Kuwait to seek greater protection for migrant workers.
The Times of Israel Community.