Filipino Driver Arrested for Killing, Beheading Compatriot

JEDDAH, 15 February 2008 — Police in Riyadh’s Sulaimaniya District have arrested a Filipino driver for allegedly murdering his compatriot following a dispute, Arabic press reports said yesterday.

The arrest took place within two hours after the crime, the daily Jazirah reported.It said police earlier launched a manhunt after they found a head separated from the body in garbage box north of Riyadh.

Crime investigators visited the place and found that the victim had nine stab wounds on various parts of his body. The killer separated the head and kept it in another place to make identification of the victim difficult.

Police had got some clues about the killer’s identity when they studied the way the crime had taken place, said Maj. Sami Al-Suwairekh, spokesman of the Riyadh police. The investigation then focused on Southeast Asian communities living in the neighborhood and later learned that a Saudi family in the area had two Filipino drivers and one of them was missing.

Security agents called the other driver and asked him about the missing driver. He said he had no information about his colleague but investigators became suspicious about him after they found some fresh wounds and marks in different parts of his body.

The man later admitted that he was the killer of his compatriot and explained to the police the whole story including how he cut the man’s head and put it in a plastic cover along with his clothing and dumped it in a garbage box in Malaz, far away from the crime site. Sulaimaniya police recorded the killer’s confessions and passed his case to the Investigation and Public Prosecution Board to take necessary action, said the spokesman.

Police withheld the names of the suspect and the victim pending completion of the investigation.

Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor, in a telephone interview, said he has instructed his staff to coordinate with the police and gather the necessary information about the case.

Hundreds of Filipinos are languishing in Saudi jails for crimes such as murder, alcohol-related offenses and immorality.