Saudi man slashes wrist at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - A Saudi man slashed his wrist and wrote on the wall of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) dayroom in his own blood as he was waiting to be deported yesterday morning.

Mazyad Darwish Alotayit, 48, arrived from Doha, Qatar before midnight Sunday, but was prevented from entering the country after he became unruly, Bureau of Immigration (BI) intelligence head Wilson Soluren told The STAR.

He said Alotayit became violent when he was asked about his plans to stay in the country. Instead of answering, he threw his medicine at the immigration counter and started shouting, according to Soluren.

Alotayit was barred from entering the country under Commonwealth Act 613, the immigration law, and scheduled to be sent on the next available flight to Qatar, where he came from, Soluren said.

He said Alotayit was brought to the NAIA dayroom at the departure area, where he was supposed to stay until the 5:30 p.m. flight to Qatar yesterday.

While in the dayroom, Alotayit ignored pleas by employee Portia Ortiz not to smoke. She called the attention of Qatar Airways security personnel Dave Papilla and asked him to stop their passenger from smoking.

Papilla said he knocked, but Alotayit refused to open the door. The two employees used a duplicate key to open the door. They saw Alotayit had slashed his wrist with a broken compact disc and used his own blood to write on the dayroom wall at around 4:30 a.m.

A Muslim visa reader said it appeared that Alotayit had written Arabic words “in shorthand.”

Alotayit was brought to the San Juan de Dios Hospital, where his wound was stitched. He was then brought back to NAIA, where he was sent on a flight back to Qatar yesterday afternoon.