MANILA: Qatar released 17 overseas Filipino workers arrested for participating in an unauthorised rally in support of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the palace announced on Monday (April 7).
“The Qatari Ambassador to the Philippines, Ahmed Saad Nasser Abdullah Al-Homidi, stated that the 17 individuals who were arrested in Qatar have already been released and the cases filed against them have been dismissed,” Palace press officer Claire Castro said in Filipino at a briefing in Malacanang.
In a text message to INQUIRER.net, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Cacdac confirmed that the Middle Eastern country’s government dropped“cases or matters” that led to the OFWs’ arrest.
“No charges were filed against the 17 and therefore the cases or matters that led to their arrests before Qatari authorities have been dismissed,” Cacdac said.
The rally in Qatar was among the demonstrations held by Duterte supporters on March 28, Duterte’s birthday.
Duterte is currently held at the International Criminal Court detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands, pending trial for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his administration’s war on drugs.
His administration’s drug war claimed at least 6,000 lives, according to official government data. However, human rights watchdogs estimated the death toll from the drug war to be between 12,000 and 30,000 from 2016 to 2019. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
