MADINAH, 24 June 2006 — An Indonesian driver dumped the body of his wife, who died from natural causes, in a street corner in the Al-Bahr neighborhood of Madinah on Thursday because he feared he would be arrested and punished by the authorities for helping her overstay in the Kingdom, officials said.
The police found the body in a sitting position, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. A patrol team approached the woman, whom they found sitting next to a building for an unusually long period, suspecting there was something amiss. The officials realized that the woman was dead when the body fell down, the paper said.
Police immediately launched an investigation to ascertain the identity of the woman and the circumstances that led to her death. A few hours prior to finding the body, the patrol team had seen an Asian expatriate sitting in the same location. It later transpired that the woman was married to an Indonesian driver and had come to the Kingdom on Umrah visa. Police took the Indonesian into custody.
The man panicked when his wife died because he was afraid that he would be penalized for helping her remain in the country illegally, he told the police during questioning.
The man dressed up his wife’s body, covered her in abaya and took it to the street. He thought that the police patrol would find the body and make arrangements for burial. As police were examining the body, the distraught husband watched from a distance.
The body has been kept at the morgue as the investigations continue.
