Saudi husband cops jail term for wife's torture of maid

Saudi husband cops jail term for wife's torture of maid

Agence France-Presse, Riyadh

A Saudi court has sentenced a businessman to three years in
prison for the torture inflicted by his wife on their Indonesian
maid, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Jeddah judge Mohammed Amin Mordad said the wife tortured the
Indonesian maid "by inserting a heated screwdriver into her
genitals," Al-Madina said.

Fleeing this "continued" ill treatment, the maid "became
hysterical" and sought refuge in the Indonesian consulate in the
Red Sea city, the paper said.

The businessman husband, who did not know what his wife was
doing to the maid but took responsibility for her actions, was
also sentenced to a unspecified number of lashings and ordered to
pay US$10,000 in damages.

More than one million foreigners work as domestic helpers in
Saudi homes, including 400,000 maids, mainly from Indonesia, the
Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Thousands of domestic helpers yearly flee their employers in a
variety of disputes including non-payment of salaries,
maltreatment by family members, unwillingness to continue work
and psychological difficulties.