“I feel a bit better now but I’m experiencing severe back pain. It’s excruciating. I really don’t know what happened to my back after that police kicked me so hard after raping me and stabbing me on my neck and back,” disclosed Marissa to the Arab Times on Friday as her eyes welled with tears.
Supported by a thoracic-lumbar brace on her back, she showed the healing wounds on her neck and bruises on her face. “Thank God I’m still alive. I draw strength from God and from the thought that my seven-year-old son is waiting for me in the Philippines. I wish I can see my son and mother who I haven’t seen for almost seven years now. I hope Vice-President Binay can help in bringing them to Kuwait,” cried Marissa, a single mother. She left her son when he was still a baby to work here in Kuwait, hoping to give him a better future. “What happened to me was unimaginable, indeed, it was a miracle that I survived the horrifying ordeal,” she stated.
Marissa was deployed to Kuwait on Sept 12, 2006 to work as a Household Service Worker for three years and later on at a dress shop in Farwaniya. Based on her account, on the late evening of Sept 30, she and her female friend came out from a mall along the Sixth Ring Road. They were inside a cab on their way home to Farwaniya when they were stopped by the suspect who alighted from the police car. Unfortunately, her residence visa had expired four days ago and it’s still being renewed by her new sponsor. The suspect let her friend go away as she still has a valid visa while she was taken by the suspect to the police car. The suspect instead of taking her to the police station, allegedly drove her to a dark deserted place in South Surra where he allegedly raped her inside the police patrol car and stabbed her with a Swiss knife on the neck and back. She was left bleeding and almost dead along the road. Marissa was confined at the Intensive Care Unit for two days before she was taken to the regular ward.
Earlier, well-known Kuwaiti human rights lawyer, Sheikha Fawzia Salem Al-Sabah visited Marissa at the hospital and volunteered to be her legal counsel pro bono after learning about her case. “I want Sheikha Fawzia to be my lawyer, although the embassy referred me to a male lawyer but I don’t like him. I prefer Sheikha Fawzia because she’s a lady and I’m more comfortable with her. She’s competent and I’m confident that she will fight for my case,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Head of the Assistance to Nationals Unit at the Philippine Embassy Dalidig Ibrahim Tanandato told the Arab Times that the embassy is bent on filing rape and frustrated murder cases against the suspect. He added that the embassy will respect Marissa’s decision on whoever she chooses to be her lawyer.
“I will not stop until justice is served. I want him to languish in jail for the barbaric act that he did to me,” reiterated Marissa.
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