DFA: No appealing Ranara verdict

The 15-year prison term of the 17-year-old killer of rape-murder victim Jullebee Ranara has not resulted from an irregularity, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday amid bereaved kin's outcry that the penalty was too lenient.

While the DFA gave its support to Ranara's family, Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Eduardo de Vega told the Daily Tribune that "there was no whitewashing of the case."

"We told the family that this is the maximum allowed by Kuwaiti law. The accused was not acquitted. There was no whitewashing of the case. In the Philippines, minors are even exempt from criminal responsibility," he said in a text message.

"The prosecution cannot appeal a judgment of acquittal, or even in cases of a conviction, there can be no appeal by the prosecution to raise the penalty," he said.

The DFA, late Thursday, announced that Ranara's killer was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by a Kuwaiti juvenile court.

On top of the murder conviction, the court also meted another one-year jail term for driving without a license.

Ranara was found lifeless in January. She was raped, impregnated, burned, run over, and left for dead in the desert by her employer's son.