- MAKKAH: The Court of Appeals has returned the case of Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, the Indonesian housemaid who was allegedly tortured by her Saudi woman employer, to the General Court in Madinah to review the verdict, sources close to the court told Arab News on Wednesday.
The sources, who did not want to be identified, said the court noted that the judge in Madinah issued his ruling on the public right before the private one.
“The Madinah judge should have first looked at the private right and issue his verdict on it,” the sources said.
The judge sentenced the Saudi woman to three years imprisonment, which was considered by the lawyers of the housemaid and the Indonesian government to be very light.
The judge accused the Saudi defendant of trading in human beings, but her two lawyers, Ahmed Al-Rashid and Abdul Rahman Hajjar, filed an appeal.
A spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry described the ruling as very light and said it would be appealed. He said the Saudi woman should have been sentenced to 15 years in prison at least.
Indonesian President Susilo Mambang Yudhoyono described the violence against the 23-year-old Sumiati as “unnatural” and dispatched Women's Affairs Minister Linda Gumelar to Saudi Arabia to follow up on the case.
