British lord joins call to save Jennifer Dalquez from death row

A member of United Kingdom's House of Lords or upper parliament has called on the government of the United Arab Emirates to grant Filipina domestic helper Jennifer Dalquez clemency to save her from death row.

"It is clear from the evidence that her action was not pre-meditated, but a desperate response to an unprovoked sexual attack," Inderjit Singh, Lord of Wimbledon CBE, said in a letter addressed to UAE Ambassador Sulaiman Hamid Almazroui.

"I am writing to you to use your good offices to remove the threat of the death penalty and for the authorities to show due clemency," added Singh, a former BBC journalist, engineer, and champion of interfaith relations.

An excerpt of the letter was posted on the website of Network of Sikh Organizations, the British-registered charity that Singh chairs.

The same post contains a statement from the pro-migrant worker group Justice For Domestic Workers (J4DW), which described Dalquez, 30, as another "victim of gross inhumane abuse and injustice faced by migrants in the Gulf states."

"Her plea in mitigation of self defense as she resisted and fought off her assailant when he attempted to rape her at knife point has been disregarded," J4DW Coordinator Marissa Begonia said.

Dalquez was sentenced to death for killing her employer on May 20, 2015. She insisted it was self defense as her employer, armed with a knife, allegedly tried to rape her.

The Court of Appeals in Al Ain on Monday deferred to April 12 its ruling on Dalquez's execution after one of the victim's children did not attend the hearing.

Dalquez could be saved from execution if the victim's two children will opt for the payment of blood money. —KBK, GMA News