RIYADH, 12 May 2005 — Saudi lawyer Nasser Al-Dandani, who represents the allegedly tortured Indonesian maid Nour Miyati, said yesterday that he is waiting for the court hearing after a report submitted by the investigating team largely exonerated her Saudi employer and his family.
The Indonesian Embassy reiterated that “the mission will be shortly sending a diplomatic note to Saudi officials requesting them to re-investigate the case.”
Al-Dandani, however, refused to speak in detail about the investigation report recently made public in which the maid is said to have retracted the earlier statements she made against her sponsor.
Asked about the condition of Miyati who is currently in the King Faisal Hospital and Research Center, Arif Suyoko, first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy, said: “She has now complained about her left eye and left ear and has also shown signs of forgetfulness. At times, she could only respond by weeping, wailing and crying.”
Arif Suyoko noted that a ban on the recruitment of Indonesian maids is still in force.
Asked about the 25-year-old Indonesian maid, Suniati Binti Nibran Sujari, who was admitted to hospital last month with burns and injured genitals, M. Sukiarto, labor attache at the Indonesian Embassy, said: “Suniati still can’t make a statement because she is suffering from depression.”
What has become of her employer, who was arrested at the time, was not immediately known. Suniati, from West Java, had extensive burns on her face, legs, her abdomen and genitals. She could only nod her head and blink her eyes when the name of her employer as the guilty person was suggested to her.
Some 853 cases of torture of housemaids were reported to the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh last year. Jakarta is also working on a project to set up a task force in nine Saudi cities to look after its workers. The task force will initially be set up in Riyadh, Qasim, Dammam, Hail and Hofuf.
