Saudi couple jailed for killing Asian maid

Madinah : The Jeddah Criminal Court has sentenced a Saudi husband and wife to three and two years respectively for beating and torturing their Asian maid to death, according to a press report on Wednesday.

The sentence included 500 lashes to be divided between the couple, the court announced, rejecting the defendants’ argument that there was “not enough evidence” to find them guilty of the horrific crime.

The maid’s suffering was first brought to the attention of Al-Salamah police station when it received a report from a patrol that an Asian maid had been brought to a hospital in a coma by her sponsor, who claimed she fell from the first floor trying to escape. The woman died after eight days.

The police referred the case to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution in Jeddah, resulting in the arrest of the man and his businesswoman wife. The case took a turn when a fellow domestic testified that the victim had not been in good health. In addition, an autopsy revealed that she weighed only 29.2 kg.

The defendants denied the charges against them with their lawyer providing the court with evidence that he claimed exonerated his clients. This included that the cause of death was acute and chronic pulmonary inflammation.