Jordanian in contempt case avoids arrest

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – The builder of one of the world’s biggest Jose Rizal statues today faces arrest for contempt of court, five days after a regional trial court suspended the warrant for his arrest.

The arrest warrant for Mahmoud Asfour, a naturalized Filipino from Jordan, was suspended when authorities failed to arrest him because he reportedly couldn’t be found at his residence in Bayombong or in Barangay Casat, where he lives with his Filipina wife and children.

However, an RTC employee indicated that a number of high-ranking national government officials “pressured” the judge on Asfour’s case to suspend the arrest.

Well-known in the area for the big Rizal statue that lies above his house, Asfour is also reportedly a former high-ranking executive of a Middle East-based international bank.

“We will implement his arrest as the court says. Our men are ready for it,” said a police official.

Asfour’s arrest order issued on Sept. 3 came after the Court of Appeals failed to issue a resolution on his motion questioning the contempt charges and arrest which the judge slapped on him last year.

The Jordanian-turned-Filipino was charged with contempt of court last year after he was found to be lying when he said he was not notified of the court-scheduled hearings in the libel and grave threat cases that he filed against a former associate, Isabelo Ordoñez Jr.