Maid abuser released, to be retried

A Saudi court released on bail a woman who was sentenced to three years in prison for severely torturing her Indonesian housemaid  after her lawyer appealed the verdict, press reports said Wednesday.

The appeal court in the western town of Madina said it would retry the 53-year-old woman after it found that the judge “rushed in his sentence” during the first trial, Sharq and other newspapers reported.

“The appeal court annulled the first sentence and this is in the interest of the defendant,” defence lawyer Ahmed Al Rashid said.

“The court will hear the case again in the presence of my client, the plaintiff and the prosecutor…the appeal court made some remarks about the previous sentence and decided to retry the defendant… I am now looking for a sentence to acquit my client because there is no evidence she tortured the maid.”

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 the Gulf states.