A1SaudiArabia.com

JEDDAH: A number of Saudi youths launched a film on Tuesday appealing to US President Barack Obama to use his constitutional power of presidential pardon to set free a Saudi man jailed for sexual assault.

Humaidan Al-Turki is currently serving 28 years in a US prison.

Read More

MADINA – A housemaid jumped to her death from the window of her employer’s flat on the seventh floor of a building on Sultana Street here on Tuesday.
The maid, according to witnesses, was using an umbrella as a parachute to escape. Unfortunately, the umbrella failed to open at the right moment and the maid came crashing down on the pavement to die instantly.
The maid, eyewitnesses said, first tossed out a bag containing her clothes and jumped with the umbrella in her hand.
Her employer, who is known only by his initials M.O., said the building’s guard told him about the incident and said he found the umbrella hanging on the balcony. A knife used by the maid to open the tightly closed window was also found, he said.
At the request of the maid’s family, the employer said, she was buried at Baqe’e Al-Gargad in the Prophet’s City. – Okaz/SG  

13 nails and 5 needles removed from her body

RIYADH/COLOMBO – Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman Al-Jammaz, Kingdoms Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said here Friday the case of the abused Sri Lankan maid is being followed up and the embassy is in touch with officials at the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment to get clarifications.

A report from Colombo said doctors removed 13 nails and five needles from the Sri Lankan maid who says the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body.

Read More

RIYADH: A Sri Lankan housemaid with 24 nails embedded in her body after allegedly being tortured by her employer is to undergo surgery in a Colombo hospital on Friday.

Ariyawathi, 49, said her employer in Saudi Arabia inflicted the injuries on her as a punishment. She flew back to Sri Lanka last week and was admitted to Kamburupitiya hospital in the islands south, hospital director Prabath Gajadeera said on Thursday.

“She was brought in complaining that her Saudi employer drove nails into her body, and X-rays showed that there were 24 nails and a needle,” Gajadeera said. “There is one nail on the forehead, just under the skin.”

Read More

RIYADH: Doctors in Sri Lanka have found 23 nails in the body of a tortured housemaid who returned to Colombo from Riyadh, Sri Lankan Embassy sources told Arab News on Tuesday.

“We have received this complaint from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo, who said the maid has been allegedly tortured by her sponsor,” a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh told Arab News. “We are looking for the sponsor. We were able to track down the Saudi recruitment agent in Riyadh and we will summon the sponsor to discuss this issue,” the official said.

Doctors at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in the Matara district, 140 km from Colombo, said the nails had been hammered into the maids body. Dr. Kamal Weeratunge, who was treating the maid, claimed the nails had been heated up before they punctured her skin.

Read More

JEDDAH – Jeddah police have arrested two suspected runaways – Indonesian maid and her boyfriend – who both work for a Saudi family in Madina. The police received a report from Madina police that the maid and her boyfriend, who works for the family as a driver, allegedly robbed the family of their valuables and escaped to Jeddah. The police found the driver and the maid hiding in a house in north Jeddah and arrested them. The arrests took place less than 17 hours after the police received the report. – Okaz/SG

DAMMAM – With the onset of Ramadan, major bookshops in the Kingdom are doing a brisk business of selling cookery books.

Many homemakers are apparently eager to try out new recipes and dishes during the holy month. Many are also trying to guide their maids on how to prepare tasty meals for family members and guests.

Abdul Sattar, a leading bookshop salesman, said that along with Islamic books, cookery books are in greater demand these days.

Read More

JEDDAH – Jeddah police Wednesday detained a couple and others who are suspected of being involved in the death of the couples Asian maid who was found dead at their home, authorities said.

The couple was detained at their home in Safa District after investigators found bruises and scratches on the body, which led them to assume the woman had been assaulted, according to authorities, who added that an investigation was under way.

First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq, acting Jeddah Police spokesman, said security authorities have detained other people who are thought to be involved.

Read More

MAKKAH/JEDDAH – With Ramadan only a little more than a week away, many Saudi families are desperately seeking a housemaid. The maid market is booming with housemaids available on an hourly basis and demanding exorbitant wages. Taking advantage of this “high demand” season, many housemaids leave their employers at the last minute after having promised to work for an agreed upon amount and stipulated conditions.

Recruitment agencies, which earlier called the shots, are now a thing of the past. They have been replaced by female brokers who will not provide a housemaid for anything less than SR3,000, an amount which is far more than the standard charge of SR1,200 to SR1,500 per month.

Read More

JEDDAH: Police in Jeddah have received a number of telephone calls from people seeking to adopt a one-year-old Saudi child who was found in the care of an Asian family whose home was raided by police on June 28.

Police officers initially thought the child might have been kidnapped by the family and distributed photographs of the child for publication in the local press.

Read More