Alleged maid abuser in Saudi acquitted again

A Saudi appeal court acquitted a local woman who was sentenced in January to three years in prison for severely torturing her Indonesian housemaid, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Thursday.

The court in the western town of Makkah upheld an earlier acquittal verdict by the appeals court in the nearby town of Madina, where the maid had worked.

“The court in Makkah acquitted the defendant and decided to free her after it found no evidence of torture and the lawyer for the defendant failed to present any concrete evidence,” Sabq newspaper said.

In April, the judge at the appeal court in Madina also said there was no evidence the 53-year-old woman tortured her maid while her lawyer said he would seek damages for his client who had spent several months in jail.

In January, a court in Madina sentenced the woman to three years in prison for stabbing, beating and burning her 23-year-old Indonesian maid.

The Saudi woman was arrested after allegedly beating Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa so severely as to break bones and cause internal bleeding, putting a hot iron to her head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.

Sumiati's case shocked and outraged human 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 other Gulf oil producers.