Couple sentenced to death by Kuwaiti court

A Kuwaiti court yesterday sentenced in absentia a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife to death by hanging over the murder of a Filipina maid, a judicial source said.

The court issued the sentence in the first hearing in the case of Joanna Demafelis, the 29-year-old maid whose body was found in a freezer in Kuwait earlier this year.

The couple can appeal if they return to Kuwait, the source told AFP.

Renato Pedro Villa, a Filipino ambassador, declined to comment.