Kuwait jails Philippine domestic helper for joining ISIL

The 32-year-old – who was arrested in August – told interrogators her husband was an active fighter with ISIL in Libya and that he had asked her to come to Kuwait from the Philippines, according to the interior ministry

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KUWAIT CITY // A Kuwaiti court sentenced a Philippine woman to 10 years in jail on Monday after convicting her of joining ISIL and plotting attacks.

The ruling, which is not final, also calls for deporting the 32-year old after serving her term.

The woman was arrested in August, two months after arriving in Kuwait to work as a domestic helper.

At the time, the interior ministry said she had confessed to being a member of ISIL and was plotting terrorist attacks in the country.

The woman told interrogators her husband was an active fighter with ISIL in Libya and that he had asked her to come to Kuwait from the Philippines as a domestic helper, according to the ministry.

An ISIL-affiliated group in the Philippines has conduced a string of bombings as well as kidnappings for ransom of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries in the country.

Kuwaiti courts have sentenced a number of members, sympathisers and financiers of ISIL to various jail terms.

In October, Kuwait police arrested an Egyptian driver suspected of being a member of the extremist group after he rammed a rubbish lorry into a pickup carrying five Americans.

Authorities said in July they had dismantled three ISIL cells which were plotting attacks, including a suicide bombing against a Shiite mosque and another against an interior ministry target.

An ISIL-linked suicide bomber killed 26 worshippers in June last year when he blew himself up in a Shiite mosque, the worst such attack in the country’s history.

* Agence France-Presse