'Tortured' maid charged by Saudis

[allemand]

There is controversy in Saudi Arabia over the treatment of a foreign maid who accused her employers of torture.
The most serious charges against the man and woman for whom she worked have now been dropped while the maid is accused of making false allegations.

The 25-year-old maid, Nour Miyati, from Indonesia was sent to hospital with gangrene saying she had been tied up for a month and left without food.

But Saudi authorities have charged her with making false allegations.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4542827.stm

Quoting a statement by the Riyadh governorate, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday that during questioning by investigators Miyati herself retracted earlier charges that she was tied up and tortured by her employer. Miyati has now been charged with making false allegations against her employer.

“We were not involved with the investigation and did not attend the questioning of Nour Miyati. We only found out the result from the newspapers, so we don’t know yet why she changed her statement,” M. Sukiarto, labor attaché at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News.
&category=Kingdom

JEDDAH, 10 May 2005 — After visiting Nour Miyati at the hospital, the Indonesian Embassy recommends reinvestigating her case. “I found her physically better now than when she was first brought to the hospital in Shumaisi but mentally she seems to be unstable,” M. Sukiarto, labor attache at the Indonesian Embassy, told Arab News.

The investigative committee commissioned by the Riyadh Municipality came out with its report earlier this week after two months of investigating the case of Miyati who accused her sponsor and his wife of torture. In March, Miyati was taken to a Riyadh hospital by her sponsor in critical condition with severe injuries causing gangrene to her fingers, toes and part of her right foot. She has had some of her fingers amputated as a result.

In the committee’s report, Miyati has retracted her earlier accusations about being tied up. When Arab News spoke with Sukiarto to comment on the report, he expressed surprise at the findings especially that the embassy and the lawyer it hired for Miyati was denied access to her throughout the investigation.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=63534&d=10&m=5&y=2005

So she suddenly retracts her accusations after being questioned by Saudi interrogators while her lawyer and Indonesian embassy officials were denied access to her.

Surprise, surprise... :eyes:

[KlatooBNikto]

1. The silence of the entire Arab world on matters involving these young

women from Asia is a scandal.This is just one episode among thousands,although it may even exceed the egregiousness of their normal scandals.

For those who would like to learn more about these abuses of Asian women in the Arab world, please read Amy Waldman's report in last week's NYT.

Then ask yourself why Congress and the rest of our idiot press is silent?

[bennywhale]

2. Bastards. I remember about 5 years ago or so

a car bomb went off in Riyadh. It was islamic terrorists but the authorities didn't want to admit for fear of scaring off businesss. Remember this was pre 9/11. Suddenly, three British engineers working for an oil company appear on television in Saudi admitting to the bombs.

They were pale and shaking while they pointed to a map and explained how and where they planted the bombs. The explanation given was that it was some sought of Beer War between rival gangs of British Ex-Pats.

It was almost comical, apart from it being so serious. The Saudi regime are a brutal clique of Tyrants, and the sooner they fall the better. (Unless Osama gets power of course)

[allemand]

3. Another tortured maid still unable to speak:

Asked about the 25-year-old Indonesian maid, Suniati Binti Nibran Sujari, who was admitted to hospital last month with burns and injured genitals, M. Sukiarto, labor attache at the Indonesian Embassy, said: “Suniati still can’t make a statement because she is suffering from depression.”

What has become of her employer, who was arrested at the time, was not immediately known. Suniati, from West Java, had extensive burns on her face, legs, her abdomen and genitals. She could only nod her head and blink her eyes when the name of her employer as the guilty person was suggested to her.

Some 853 cases of torture of housemaids were reported to the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh last year. Jakarta is also working on a project to set up a task force in nine Saudi cities to look after its workers. The task force will initially be set up in Riyadh, Qasim, Dammam, Hail and Hofuf.
&category=Kingdom

What a sick society !
:puke:

[Coexist]

4. torture of civilians, residents who blew up two of our big buildings

yet our President plays footsies with their leader in the flower-filled meadow.

Yeah, let's attack Iraq.

[Auntie Bush]

5. "our President plays footsies." You forgot holding hands and kissing.

[Zenlitened]

6. Did she make up the gangrene, too?

:shrug:

[warrens]

7. Probably cut off the fingers one by one

No anaesthetic

[LdyGuique]

8. Women will continue to be goddamned by male fundamentalists

until we overthrow the religious cant that allows this type of abuse. There IS a reason that poison has been the weapon of choice for women.