Lebanese couple sentenced to death for killing maid in Kuwait

MIDDLE-EAST UPDATE

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1277211/middle-east

The Lebanese couple who killed their

Filipino maid in Kuwait were sentenced

to death in absentia on Sunday. (AFP)

DUBAI: A Kuwaiti criminal court has sentenced a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife to death by hanging for killing their Philipinna maid on Sunday, Kuwaiti newspapers reported.

The Lebanese man admitted killing the maid a year ago in what became known as the Freezer Body case. Following that, the  General Attorney in Lebanon charged the man with killing his maid and putting her body in a freezer.

Lebanese authorities arrested the man last month and he was reffered to justuice authorities in Southern Lebanon because he is a resident of Saidon, a city in Southern Lebanon. The man's wife, a Syrian, is still at large.

Security authorities in Kuwait had announced almost two months ago that the body of the maid was found in a freezer in the flat where the couple resided for a long period of time and said they had left the country.

Kuwaiti authorities informed Lebanese security officials who arrested the man but refused to extradite him and decided to put him on trial in Lebanon. His wife is still at a place unknown in Syria.

The crime caused a crisis between Kuwait andthe Philippines after which Manila ordered its workforce to leave the country and put on hold all applications for work in Kuwait by its citizens.