Tortured maid awaits dental operation

EMIRATES 247 NEWS

Maid had head and plastic surgeries and will see family in Saudi

By Staff

Published Sunday, December 12, 2010

An Indonesian housemaid who was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia last month after she was severely tortured by her female employer is still in hospital awaiting a dental operation, the last of a series of surgeries she had undergone.
Sumiati Salan Mustapa, 23, will also be able to see her father and other family members who have just been granted entry visas to come the Gulf Kingdom, the Saudi Arabic language daily Almadina reported on Sunday.
“Mustapa has undergone all necessary surgeries at hospital and is now waiting for a dental operation to repair her broken teeth,” the paper said.
“Almadina has also learned that her father and two other members of her family will arrive in the Kingdom this week to see their daughter.”
The paper said the 53-year-old housewife who had tortured her maid is still in prison awaiting trial but added she has not been able to name any lawyer.
Mustapa was moved out of the intensive care unit at King Fahd General Hospital in the central town of Madina late last month after undergoing a head surgery because of a severe damage to her scalp. She later had a plastic surgery to fix her damaged face and skin.
Saudi newspapers had 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 had suffered from burns on her body, cuts in her scalp and upper lip, a fractured pelvis and many wounds.
According to Saudi media, the 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.
The incident has caused public and official furor inside Saudi Arabia and in Indonesia, where there have been demands to stop sending maids to the Gulf country. More than 600,000 Indonesian housemaids work in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter which controls a quarter of the global crude wealth.