Tortured Indonesian maid has head surgery

Doctors performed a surgery on the head of an Indonesian housemaid who was tortured with a hot iron by her female employer in Saudi Arabia last week, the Saudi online Arabic language daily reported on Wednesday.

Sumiati Salan Mustapa, 23, will also undergo several plastic surgeries after she is moved out of intensive care unit at the hospital in the central town of Madina.

“She underwent a surgery on her scalp on Sunday and she will undergo several plastic operations later,” the paper quoted hospital sources as saying.

Kabar quoted a diplomatic source at the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh as denying reports that his government had halted the dispatch of national housemaids to Saudi Arabia following the incident.

“We have not taken such a decision……but there is a proposal by my government to ensure the mobile phone number of any employer of an Indonesian housemaid is listed in the job contract and conveyed to the competent authorities in Jakarta,” he said. “This condition should be enforced before the maid departs to the Kingdom.”

On Monday, newspapers quoted the maid as saying her employer, a widow, told her she wanted to cure her from a mental illness when she used a hot iron on her, causing severe injuries to her head and body.

Doctors said the maid is suffering from burns on her body, cuts in her scalp and upper lip, a fractured pelvis and many wounds.

According to the papers, the 53-year-old widow confessed to the crime after her son told police during interrogation that his mother tortured the maid.

The unnamed widow has remained in detention pending trial and a local human rights group has said it would demand severe punishment of the employer.

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