Maid Returns, Spared From Death Sentence 17-Year-Old Killed Her Arab Employer During Attempted Rape

Jubilant Filipinos greeted a 17-year-old maid who returned home Thursday after being freed from a death sentence for murdering her employer in the United Arab Emirates.

Sarah Balabagan - who said she killed the man because he tried to rape her - became a symbol in the Philippines of the abuses women migrant workers suffer at the hands of foreign employers.

An international outcry led to her sentence being reduced to one year, and she was released from jail Wednesday three months early.

Dozens of reporters mobbed the teen-ager when she arrived Thursday at Manila’s international airport, escorted by the Philippine ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. Hundreds of well-wishers cheered her.

A visibly tired Balabagan declined to take questions at a brief news conference, saying only that she thanked God and those who helped win her release.

Balabagan had originally been sentenced to seven years for the 1994 killing of her 85-year-old employer, but was then sentenced to death in a retrial.

An outcry in the Philippines followed, and President Fidel Ramos sent three Cabinet members to the United Arab Emirates to intervene on her behalf.

The family of her employer, Almas Mohammed al-Baloushi, eventually agreed to drop its demand for her execution and settle for $41,000 in compensatory “blood money.” Her sentence was reduced to a year in jail and 100 lashes.

During her nine months in jail, Balabagan received light lashes and paid the fine with the help of international contributions.

A French group, the Save Sarah Balabagan Movement, contributed $38,500 for her future education. A Filipino-Chinese industrialist also helped raise money.

Balabagan, a Muslim from the southern Philippine city of Cotabato, confessed to stabbing Baloushi at his home in Al-Ain, but she said he tried to rape her at knife-point.

During the trial, physicians testified there had been a rape attempt, but the court ruled there was no evidence of rape. Court documents showed she stabbed him 34 times.

Her case highlighted the plight of millions of Asian women driven by poverty to work abroad, where they often face exploitation and sexual abuse. The Philippines has more than 5 million migrant workers, who send back more than $6 billion a year to their families.

Worldwide, there has been a sharp increase in the number of women working abroad, according to U.N. statistics.