DOJ orders NBI to probe Demafelis’ recruiters


By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday ordered a criminal investigation against the recruiters of Joanna Demafelis, the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) whose body was found in a freezer in Kuwait.
Aguirre issued Department Order 102 directing the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe and file cases, if evidence warants, against Our Lady of Mt Carmel Global E-Human Resources Incorporated.
Demafelis died in Kuwait after suffering from extreme physical abuse allegedly committed by her employers. Her corpse was found inside a freezer after a year, prompting the government's total deployment ban to the Gulf state.
He also vowed justice for Demafelis.
Last week, authorities in the Middle East separately arrested the employers of 29-year-old Demafelis suspected to have been involved in her killing.
Nader Essam Assaf, a Lebanese national, and his wife Mona, a Syrian national, had been the subject of an INTERPOL manhunt after Kuwaiti authorities discovered early this month the battered body of Demafelis inside a freezer in the couple’s abandoned apartment unit more than a year after her family reported her missing. —ALG, GMA News

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