Saudi Woman Acquitted of Torturing Sumiati!

Riyadh. A court has acquitted a Saudi who had been jailed for three years after being found guilty of torturing her Indonesian maid, a local newspaper said on Sunday.

"A court in Medina acquitted on Saturday a Saudi woman who was sentenced in January to three years in prison for severely torturing her Indonesian housemaid," reported Arab News.

In January, Indonesia said it was appealing against the three-year jail term given to the woman for stabbing, beating and burning her maid, and slammed the sentence as being "too light."

But on Saturday, the judge "said there was no evidence that the 53-year-old woman tortured her maid, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, while her lawyer said he would seek damages for his client," said the English-language daily.

During a hearing in January, Mustapa showed the judge her injuries, an Indonesian consular official in Jeddah Diddi Wahyudi told AFP.

"The court suspected the truth of the accusations made by the maid because she refused to take her oath in court," the Saudi woman's lawyer, Ahmad Al-Rashid, told Arab News.

Mustapa's lawyer said he would appeal the verdict as "there was convincing evidence to prove that the maid is telling the truth," reported the Saudi daily.

The case outraged rights groups and labour activists as another example of the paucity of protection for millions of mostly Asian domestic workers, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, which it called an isolated incident.

Agence France-Presse,

(Utterly unbelievable! Lack of evidence this yokel said. it could not be proven that Sumiati's boss caused all the injuries, so she must have done it to herself? "And then Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, which it called an isolated incident. What an insult to anyone's intelligence, money talks here, if you've got it, and they have, they'll get away with murder! They should have let Sadam Hussein run loose for a while in Saudi Arabia before they iced him!) siK's musings.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 04/04/2011


The Indonesian government has chosen to file an appeal against the Saudi Madinah court, which has allowed the former employer of Indonesian migrant worker Sumiati to go free despite allegations that she tortured the Indonesian maid, causing severe injuries.

“The Republic of Indonesia Consulate in Jeddah rejects the judge’s decision and has forwarded an appeal,” Presidential spokesperson Julian Aldrin Pasha said Monday, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

The judges at the court let Sumiati’s former employer go last Saturday, saying that they did not have enough evidence to prove that there had been any torture.

Sumiati, who is only 23-years-old, suffered various injuries, including broken bones and internal bleeding from the alleged abuse.

Julian said that the government would continue to protect the rights of its citizens living abroad.

“God willing there is still a chance to defend Sumiati at the appeals level,” he said.