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Abused Indonesian Maid Gets Paltry Compensation
Nour Miyati A High Court judge in Riyadh on Monday awarded SR2,500 [approximately $667] in compensation to Nour Miyati, an Indonesian maid whose toes and fingers were amputated following alleged abuse by her sponsor and his wife. Reviewing a previous ruling, the judge also dropped charges against the wife of Miyati’s sponsor, who had admitted abusing the maid, and overturned the 35 lashes she was sentenced to. Meanwhile, the sponsor was found innocent due to a lack of evidence. “According to the judge, there was not enough evidence,” said Nasser al-Dandani, the lawyer appointed by the Indonesian Embassy to represent the maid. Previously, in December 2005, after she was questioned without the presence of an Indonesian Embassy representative, a judge at the Court of Summation sentenced Miyati to 79 lashes for making false accusations against her sponsor and his wife-- a ruling that was reversed in April 2006. Miyati’s case came to light after her sponsor brought her to a Riyadh hospital in March 2005, afflicted by gangrene in her fingers, toes and a part of her right foot. She initially claimed her sponsor tied her up for a month in a bathroom and beat her severely, injuring her eyes and knocking out some of her teeth. Miyati’s case has been delayed on multiple occasions on account of her sponsor and his wife repeatedly failing to attend court hearings. According to al-Dandani, the judge did not consider the injuries or amputations to have been caused by the sponsor and his wife despite medical reports to the contrary, nor did he take into account that she had not been paid her salary for 18 months, or that she was in good health, with working limbs, when she came to work in the country. In Saudi Arabia, judges compensate injuries and lost limbs in car accidents and medical malpractice according to a standard value, Miyati’s lawyer said, adding that according to some estimates, his client deserved at least SR400,000 [approximately $107,000]. “The only thing the judge looked at was the report by a committee appointed by the court to evaluate compensations for accidents. This committee of four men did not once see Miyati or speak to her. I don’t know what they based their evaluation on and how the judge could accept that.” Al-Dandani is to appeal the ruling at the Court of Cassations. Source: Arab News, May 21, 2008
Posted at: 2008-05-22
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