RIYADH, 1 September 2007 — The Kingdom has sought more time from the Indonesian government to resolve the case of four Indonesian housemaids who were assaulted in Aflaj, a town 320 kilometers south of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Two of the maids died from the attack when a family member beat them to death, accusing them of witchcraft. Saudi police have since detained seven male suspects from the family.

The vicious attack resulted in the death of Siti Tarwiyah Slamet, 32, and Susmiyati Abdul Fulan, 28. The bodies remain in the RMC morgue.

Ruminih Surtim, 25, and Tari Tarsim, 27, were left severely injured in the incident. They were treated at the intensive care unit of Aflaj General Hospital and then were transferred to the Riyadh Medical Complex (RMC), where they were under 24-hour police guard.

On recovery, the two survivors were taken into police custody for further questioning. Some reports said they were placed under witness protection. However the Indonesian Embassy has reportedly been denied access to their citizens.

Tari came to the Kingdom in early January, while Ruminih has been in the Kingdom since October last year.

“The Saudi government will soon settle the case where two maids were fatally maltreated and two others were subject to severe beatings in Saudi Arabia,” Abdulrahman Mohammed Amen Al-Khayyaf, Saudi ambassador to Indonesia, said after a meeting with Teguh Wardoyo, director of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities Protection at the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“We deeply regret what has happened to the Indonesian migrant workers, particularly the death of two of them ... We will try to settle the matter to the best of our ability,” Al-Khayyaf said.

“But the Saudi government would need time to resolve the case although it was only a matter of procedure. If a Saudi citizen were to die in Indonesia, it will also be difficult to return his/her body to Saudi Arabia very quickly,” he said, adding that the Saudi authorities still had to prepare medical and police reports on the unfortunate incident.

On Aug. 23, relatives of the four maids staged a protest outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Jakarta, along with worker rights activists, demanding that the bodies of the two maids who died in the attack and the two survivors be sent home immediately.

Susmiyati’s brother Supomo told the Jakarta Post that he wanted his sister’s body repatriated as soon as possible and that all those responsible for killing his sister should be severely punished.