JEDDAH, 21 August 2007 — Security officials investigating the murder of two Indonesian maids and the brutal beating of two others have arrested seven members of a Saudi family.
The Indonesian maids were allegedly attacked by their employers who accused them of practicing black magic on the family’s teenage son, who was also involved in the assault and murders.
Initial reports claimed that the teenager was the only one involved in the attack and that he was mentally unstable.
The two injured maids as well as the two bodies were brought to the Emergency Room of the General Hospital in Aflaj near Riyadh.
Nasser Al-Dandani, the lawyer retained by the Indonesian Embassy, confirmed the brutal incident and said that the embassy was following up on the case with the Saudi authorities.
“Siti Tarwiyah Slamet, 32, and Susmiyati Abdul Fulan, 28, died from their injuries while Ruminih Surtim, 25, and Tari Tarsim, 27, are receiving medical treatment at the Riyadh Medical Complex,” he told Arab News. They were transferred to RMC last Monday and their condition is improving.
According to sources, the authorities are holding seven members of the Saudi family who employed the four maids.
When Arab News spoke to Tari Tarsim two weeks ago she said that her employer’s 17-year-old son was the one who assaulted them, but speaking in a weak voice and broken Arabic she was unable to explain where the other members of the family — consisting of the father, mother and nine children — were when they were assaulted.
It seems now that the son was not alone in assaulting the maids. Tari told Arab News that while the son was beating her with his igal (the black headband used to hold down the shumag, the red-and-white or plain white headdress commonly worn by Saudi men) he was yelling at her that she “had the devil inside her” and that they “did witchcraft.”
