PyQt5 signal refcount issue

from PyQt5.QtCore import QObject, QThread, pyqtSignal
from PyQt5.QtCore import qDebug, QCoreApplication, Qt
import time
import sys

class SomeThread(QObject):

    signal = pyqtSignal(QObject)

    def __init__(self):
        QObject.__init__(self)
        self.thread = QThread()
        self.wait = self.thread.wait
        #
        # self.signal.connect(self.signalHandler, type = Qt.QueuedConnection)
        self.moveToThread(self.thread)
        self.signal.connect(self.signalHandler, type = Qt.QueuedConnection)
        self.thread.started.connect(self.run)
        self.thread.start()

    def signalHandler(self, obj):
        qDebug("signalHandler obj ref counts: " + str(sys.getrefcount(obj)))

    def run(self):
        qDebug("Thread sleeps for 1 sec")
        time.sleep(1)
        qDebug("Process events now")
        QCoreApplication.processEvents()
        self.thread.exit()

app = QCoreApplication([])
th = SomeThread()

# obj = QObject()
def someFunc():
    obj = QObject()
    qDebug("obj ref counts before emit: " + str(sys.getrefcount(obj)))
    th.signal.emit(obj)
    qDebug("obj ref counts after emit: " + str(sys.getrefcount(obj)))

someFunc()
qDebug("Process main events")
QCoreApplication.processEvents()
qDebug("Process main events done")
th.thread.wait()