Filipina maid to hang for murder of Kuwaiti boy

Kuwait's Supreme Court on Tuesday maintained a death sentence against a Filipina housemaid for killing her employer's seven-year-old son by slitting his throat, a legal source said.

May Membrini, as the name was given in court documents, was convicted of killing the boy in January last year, as well as attempting to kill his older brother and sister who sustained injuries.

Afterwards she allegedly jumped from the second storey of her employer's home.

A police source said at the time that Membrini -- who had been in Kuwait for six months -- had quarreled with her employers.

The court ruling is final and only needs to be signed by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to be implemented.

In Manila, the Philippines government said it would continue to work to save the maid's life.

"We are saddened by this decision in Kuwait but our government and the embassy will not stop working to find a way to save our countrywoman," cabinet secretary Ricardo Saludo said.

"We are committed to exhaust all legal remedies," foreign affairs undersecretary Esteban Conejos said, adding that the government may either seek a pardon or a commutation of sentence from the Kuwaiti ruler.

In December, the emir agreed to commute the death sentence to life in jail for another Filipina maid, Marilou Ranario, who was convicted of killing her employer, after a visit by President Gloria Arroyo.

Membrini was sentenced to death by a lower court in July last year and the appeals court confirmed the ruling in September.

Death sentences in the Gulf state are carried out by hanging.

About 73,000 Filipinos, including 60,000 women employed mostly as housemaids, work in Kuwait and earn less than 200 dollars a month on average, labor groups say.