Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has ordered an investigation into a report of money extortion from Saudi nationals arrested for human trafficking in the Philippines.

A fact-finding committee has been formed to investigate the alleged extortion activities in the wake of a written complaint from the Saudi Embassy in Manila.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has also released a photo of a woman called Arlene (or Darlene) who allegedly belonged to the group of extortionists.

In letters to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Tourism (DoT), the Saudi Embassy identified some of the alleged extortion victims including Majdi Abdulhamed Yaghmoor, Hassand Alharbi, Ahmad Al Ghaneem and Farhan Alsolobi.

The Saudi Embassy claimed that the NBI agents arrested the Saudi nationals but released them after the latter paid sums of money ranging from Php20,000 to 300,000.

Yaghmoor and Al-Ghaneem paid Php300,000; Alsolobi, Php250,000; while Alharbi gave Php20,000 to the NBI agents before they were released.

It is alleged that the Saudi nationals, while inside the NBI premises were harassed by the bureau’s personnel as they tried to extract information from them about the extortions.

The embassy said there were other Saudi nationals victimized by the same scheme, which is reminiscent of the abduction and extortion of Japanese Noriyo Ohara in October 2011 that had led to the removal of former NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula.

Justice Assistant Secretary Zabedin Azis is heading the fact-finding committee, which also includes assistant prosecutors, Bryan Jacinto Cacha and Alejandro Daguiso and State Counsel Adonis Sulit as members.