2 suspects in Filipina maid killing held

BEIRUT — The employers of a Filipina maid found dead in a freezer in Kuwait were both arrested in the Syrian capital Damascus, a Lebanese judicial official said on Saturday.

Syrian authorities surrendered Nader Essam Assaf to Beirut on Friday because of his Lebanese citizenship but his Syrian wife Mona remains in custody in Damascus, 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,” the 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.” The official said that after leaving Kuwait, the couple had made a very brief stopover in Lebanon before travelling on to Syria.

Lebanese authorities in Beirut were interrogating Nader Essam Assaf, officials said on Saturday. 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 on Saturday Lebanese citizen Nader Essam Assaf was handed over by Syrian authorities to Lebanon on Friday.

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.

Lebanese media outlets reported that Assaf is from the northeastern region of Baalbek but he grew up in a neighbourhood south of Beirut.

The murder of Joanna Demafelis sparked outrage in the Philippines and prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to impose a departure ban for Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait.

The 29-year-old’s body, which allegedly showed signs of torture, was found earlier this month inside a freezer in the abandoned apartment unit of the detained couple. The couple have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt since Demafelis’s body was found more than a year after her family reported her missing. — AFP, AP