4 OFWs get death

Four more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are facing execution in Saudi Arabia for the alleged murder of another Filipino worker.

Migrante International, an organization of OFWs, identified the convicts as Wilfredo Bautista, Sergio Aldana, Antonio Alvesa and Miguel Fernandez.

The Taif Grand Court in Saudi Arabia imprisoned the four in 1999 and sentenced them to death last Sept. 11 for allegedly killing Jaime de la Cruz.

De la Cruz was found dead with several stab wounds after winning P3 million in a lottery run by Filipinos. The victim’s lottery prize is still missing.

This was according to the fact sheet provided by the Southern Luzon Jurisdictional Convention of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

"There is a great possibility that the four accused are innocent and now suffering for a crime they have not committed," Poe Gratela, Migrante International secretary-general, said in a statement.

Gratela said Bautista, who had worked in the Al Hada Military Hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia since 1992, suffered excessive interrogation and torture from prison guards and fell from a building that made him comatose for several months. – Sandy Araneta