JEDDAH, 18 October 2003 — Police have arrested an Indonesian maid who tried to run away after taking revenge on her sponsor and his family for thwarting her illicit love affair with a Yemeni overstayer, Okaz reported yesterday.
The maid, identified as Siti Noor, attacked the Saudi sponsor, his wife and daughter with a cleaver while they were sleeping, the paper said. The family were taken to hospital for treatment.
The 22-year-old maid had befriended a Yemeni man identified as Toufik at a market. Noor later arranged a meeting at the sponsor’s house when the family was away.
When the sponsor returned, he became suspicious when he saw Toufik talking to his maid in front of his house. He then handed over the two to police for deportation.
But the sponsor later had second thoughts, withdrew the case against the maid and brought her back to his house “out of sympathy”, the paper said. Noor attacked her sponsor while the authorities were making final arrangements for the deportation of the Yemeni. Police investigated Toufik again and both Toufik and Noor confessed, the paper said.
The maid told the police that the sponsor and his family were treating her well and that “Satanic thought” had induced her to take revenge against them. She also admitted that Toufik encouraged her to run away from the sponsor’s home.
Muhammad Al-Maqsoudi, a member of the Investigation and Public Prosecution Commission, urged Saudi families to hand over domestic staff to police as soon as they observe any criminal tendencies in them.
Meanwhile, an Arab expatriate worker fainted when he discovered that his Ethiopian girlfriend, who was admitted to King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Jeddah, had tested HIV positive. Police arrested the man as well as the woman’s husband, who was an overstayer.
