RIYADH, 1 July — The police have finished investigations into the case of a Pakistani taxi driver who was allegedly killed by a Filipino worker, a senior Filipino diplomat told Arab News here yesterday.
The Filipino suspect has been sent to Malaz Jail of Riyadh city where he is awaiting trial. Raymond Balatbat, vice consul at the Philippines Embassy, said that the dispute, which resulted in the murder of the cab driver and severe injuries to another driver, arose out of misgivings about the motive behind the crime.
The Filipino suspect, identified as Reynaldo Cortez alias Fahd, has embraced Islam, according to Balatbat who quoted Cotez’s statement as recorded by police. Cortez has alleged that “the Pakistani driver grabbed his hands after gesturing in an indecent manner. This resulted in a heated argument and the Filipino was first stabbed in his right thigh”, said the diplomat, adding that Cortez then somehow overpowered the cab driver and stabbed him to death. Balatbat also ruled out the theory that the alleged Filipino murderer was insane or suffering from depression.
A senior police officer was quoted as saying that the Filipino worker fled in the taxi of the deceased Pakistani driver, but in panic hit a limousine driven by another Pakistani. The second driver was also stabbed after he refused to budge and hand over his taxi to the suspect, said the police officer. The second Pakistani survived the attack.
Balatbat said that “the Philippine Embassy has given consular access to the suspect and “even the interrogation of Cortez was conducted by Saudi officials in my presence”. He described the murder as a “mere accident.”
Asked if a lawyer would be appointed to defend the Filipino, the diplomat said “the mission has not been informed of the date of hearing so far”.
In recent criminal cases involving Filipino overseas contract workers (OCWs), a Filipino murderer, Joetilo Cabanero, is likely to be freed soon after he paid the blood money to the victim’s family. In another case, Rowena Fuente-bela and her daughter are currently in a Riyadh jail for possessing a fake iqama and marriage certificate.
In other instances, an American couple were stabbed to death by a group of Filipinos in Riyadh. In 1997, a Filipino fashion designer, A. Macausor, was slain by his compatriots in Alkhobar and earlier in 1994, three Filipinos stormed the house of a Saudi millionaire, Saleh Al-Rajhi, and held his family hostage and killed Al-Rajhi’s two-year-old boy before police stormed the house shooting two hostage-takers dead.
According to the Filipino diplomat, 39 Filipino workers, 22 of them female, are in Al-Nissa and Al-Hair jails.
