Newspeg: “After nearly 11 years, an overseas Filipino worker has finally been saved from death row in Saudi Arabia, after the Saudi government agreed to pay SR2.3 million (about P24.9 million) in blood money sought by his victim’s kin. xxx
“(OFW Rodelio “Dondon”) Lanuza had been languishing in jail since 2000 for the killing of Saudi national Mohammad bin Said Al-Qathani. Xxx A report on Arab News said Lanuza worked in Saudi Arabia in 1996 as a draftsman. He admitted having stabbed Al-Qathani but said it was due to self-defense.” Xxx In 2002, he was sentenced to death by beheading, the Arab News report added.” (gmanetwork.com/news)
What is “blood money” under Islamic criminal law?
From: Matthew Lippman (Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago), Islamic Criminal Law and Procedure: Religious Fundamentalism v. Modern Law, 12 B.C. Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 29 (1989), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol12/iss1/3
“Criminal acts are divided into three categories. Hudud offenses are crimes against God whose punishment is specified in the Koran and the Sunna. 79 (footnotes removed due to space constraints). As God’s agent, the state initiates the prosecution of the accused. Quesas are crimes of physical assault and murder punishable by retaliation-the return of life for a life in case of murder.80 The victim or the surviving heirs may waive the punishment and ask for compensation (blood-money or diyya) or pardon the offender.81 Ta’azir are offenses whose punishments are not fixed by the Koran or Sunna and are within the discretion of the qadi.82
“Quesas and Ta’azir are offenses against the person and are private wrongs. The victim or heirs initiate prosecution of Quesas and, as noted, may waive punishment and ask for compensation or pardon the offender. The state initiates prosecution of Ta’azir (according to most jurists) as part of the ruler’s responsibility to maintain public order and welfare. The victim of Ta’azir may request the sovereign to exercise the power of grace or pardon (,afw), and the sovereign, at his discretion, may choose not to punish the offender.83
xxx
“2. Quesas Offenses
“Quesas means “equality” or “equivalence.”12o Quesas are divided into crimes against the person (murder) and crimes against the body (bodily injury). Quesas crimes include murder, voluntqry killing, ipvoluntary killing, intentional physical injury or maiming, and unintentional physical injury or maiming.121
“Islam considers murder to be the most serious crime against the person. xxx
“The murderer is executed unless the victim’s family demands compensation (diyya) or pardons the offender. xxx
xxx
“Judicial and governmental decisions must conform to the Shari’a. A governmental or judicial decision must be consistent with the Shari’a; otherwise it is a nullity. The Koran urges, “[f]ollow what has been sent down to you from your Lord, and follow no friends other than He …. “155 “Judgment belongs only to God; He has commanded that you shall not serve any but Him.”’56 Moreover, “[ w ]hoso judges not according to what God has sent down-they are the unbelievers.”157
Newspeg: The POEA issued press releases promoting its seminars for OFWs, for a fee, but maybe the better story might have been its disclosure or confirmation that rampant illegal recruitment and human trafficking remain unabated in at least ten provinces, including Isabela, Quirino, Batangas, and Pampanga.
The following are the pertinent provisions criminalizing human trafficking with a maximum penalty of twenty years’ imprisonment:
“Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act” (Republic Act No. 9208)
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“Section 4. Acts of Trafficking in Persons. – It shall be unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to commit any of the following acts:
(a) To recruit, transport, transfer; harbor, provide, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
(b) To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino woman to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
(c) To offer or contract marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling, or trading them to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
(d) To undertake or organize tours and travel plans consisting of tourism packages or activities for the purpose of utilizing and offering persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation;
(e) To maintain or hire a person to engage in prostitution or pornography;
(f) To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;
(g) To recruit, hire, adopt, transport or abduct a person, by means of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, violence, coercion, or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of said person; and
(h) To recruit, transport or adopt a child to engage in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad.”
