Farms: PHILIPPINES: FILIPINO MAID RETURNS HOME AFTER RELEASE FROM UAE JAIL
Productivity | Information | History | View | Quality
Eng/Taga/Nat A 17-year Filipino maid has flown back to Manila after being released from a United Arab Emirates jail, where she was imprisoned for killing an employer she said tried to rape her at knife point. Sarah Balabagan's case highlighted the plight of thousands of Asian women who are driven by poverty to work abroad. Touching down in Manila, the ordeal of Sarah Balabagan finally came to an end. Scores of reporters mobbed the young maid as she arrived home in the Philippines with the Philippine U-A-E ambassador, Roy Seneres. Balabagan, a Muslim from the Philippines' southern province of Mindanao, confessed to stabbing Almas Mohammed al-Baloushi at his home in Al-Ain, in the United Arab Emirates. She said her employer tried to rape her at knife point and during the trial physicians testified there had been a rape attempt, but the court ruled there was no evidence. Court documents showed Baloushi was stabbed 34 times. Sympathy for the teenager's plight ran high in the Philippines and practically every newspaper trumpeted her freedom on the front page. Initially sentenced to seven years for the 1994 murder of her 85-year-old employer, Balabagan was given the death sentence in a retrial. But after intervention by the Philippine government, the employer's family agreed to drop its demand for her execution and settled for a 41-thousand dollar fine. Her sentence was reduced to a year in prison and 100 lashes. Balabagan paid the fine with the help of international contributions. Hundreds of people waited outside to cheer and welcome her home. Sarah Balabagan fought back tears at a news conference, where she thanked the Philippine President for his help in getting her released. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) \"I would like to thank God for taking care of me (long pause). Secondly, I thank President Fidel V. Ramos because he helped me a lot, and did not neglect me.\" SUPER CAPTION: Sarah Balabagan, Released Filipino Maid And a Philippine government official offered thanks to those in the U-A-E who helped remove her death sentence. SOUNDBITE: (English) \"We are reiterating our deepest thanks to His Excellency, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al- Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates. For through his personal intercession, the Al Baloushi family, after the retrial, decided to exercise their prerogative of mercy towards Sarah Balabagan in line with the underlying humanitarian and tolerant principles of Sharia Law.\" SUPER CAPTION: Secretary Domingo Siazon, Jr.,Department of Foreign Affairs Balabagan can now try to recover from her ordeal - and perhaps catch up with friends and family she once thought she would never see again. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/b0af3b24f1bad802a63fd050b07f01a4 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Comments
-
philippino, are brought up , how to respect each others, from eldest sister to brothers, and etc, they are not thought to kill people steel from shops, or do murdering, they have been exploited by foreign, people like arab country, if they continue that, they are not going to get any workers, from abroad, there is no law, that is going to protect the out siders, government have to do something, about arabs, they are not trust worthy people.
-
philippine always suffering, for earning little money, to support the family, this is what they face, in arab country they can't stand with woman, even they are little bit free too, Arabs, have been brought up in a restricted country, with no freedom, not like western people always, they are broad minded, how can some one kill some one, when she is trying to work very hard, just to feed her family in the philippines, because of the law in united arab emirates, that is why? i think is not fair, and there is no justas at all, they always, bring foolish law, to punish poor people, even they are not the muderer, and thief in their.
-
He got some ass.