(CNN) The employer of a Filipino domestic worker, whose battered body was found in a freezer in an apartment in Kuwait City, has been arrested, Philippine officials said.

Nader Essam Assaf, a Lebanese national, is in custody in Lebanon, according to a statement from the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs. Assaf's wife, Mona, who is Syrian, is still at large and is believed to be in Syria, the statement said.

Philippine officials said couple are the principal suspects in the brutal torture and killing of Joanna Daniela Demafelis, 29.

Joanna Daniela Demafelis went to Kuwait in 2014 to earn money to send home to her family.

Assaf and his wife have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt after Kuwaiti authorities discovered Demafelis' body in the freezer earlier this month. Authorities said they believe the woman's body could have been stored there for up to one year.

Woman's family reported her missing

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