MANILA, Philippines – A Kuwaiti court on Monday sentenced a Filipino woman to 10 years in prison for joining the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group 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 the oil-rich Gulf state to work as a domestic helper.

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

The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, said they are verifying the report.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Malacañang respects the decision of the Kuwaiti court.

“We respect the judicial processes of other nations in dealing with Filipinos abroad being prosecuted for violation of the laws of their host countries,” Andanar said.

“In the case of the Filipina in Kuwait, what our embassy can do is to extend legal and consular assistance and make sure our kababayan gets due process and her rights are not violated,” Andanar added.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the DFA is verifying the report.

“In any case, our embassy is prepared to extend legal and consular assistance to the overseas Filipino worker to make sure that she gets due process and her rights are not violated,” he said.

Jose said the Filipino woman could have been forced to admit in joining the IS while she was interrogated.

“(Thus) the responsibility of (our) embassy is that she is given due process,” he said.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said he would order the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Kuwait to conduct an investigation into the charges against the Filipina domestic worker.

“I will ask our POLO to investigate the report,” he said.

Bello said he also ordered the POLO to provide necessary assistance to the convicted Filipina worker.

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

Kuwaiti courts have sentenced to various jail terms a number of members, sympathizers and financiers of the IS group.

In October, Kuwait police arrested an Egyptian driver suspected of being a member of the IS, after he rammed a garbage truck into a pick-up carrying five Americans.

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

An IS-linked suicide bomber killed 26 worshippers in June last year when he blew himself up in a mosque of Kuwait’s Shiite minority, in the worst such attack in the Gulf state’s history