MADINA: Indonesian maid Sumiati Mustapa has asked the General Court in Madina to review the dismissal of her case against her sponsor in which she accused her of physical abuse that led to her being hospitalized. Mustapa's legal representation has submitted its list of objections to the court's ruling of March 23 in which it dismissed the case following a verdict from the Appeals Court in Riyadh rejecting the three-year prison sentence given by the Madina General Court in January. In their objections, Mustapa's lawyers are asking for the case to be reviewed based on medical reports which indicate that she was subject to physical abuse. The daughter of the defendant, the Saudi sponsor of Mustapa, meanwhile, has said that all the prosecution's claims are “a fabrication” against her mother. “They have presented nothing that clearly shows my mother abused the maid,” she told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. “The dismissal of the case gave my mother justice after she was detained for five months over the case.” She said her mother had begun to return to “normal life” after the court ordered her release, and said that everything the prosecution offered during the trial was “mere hearsay and conjecture”. She also accused the Indonesian embassy of pressuring another maid that worked with the family into backing up Mustapa's claims. “The maid went to the anti-beggary office to say that the embassy had been putting pressure on her to change her statements before the embassy withdrew her from testifying at the hearings,” she said. The case of 23-year-old Mustapa received worldwide attention last year when images displaying her injuries were published in the press after she was admitted to King Fahd Hospital in Madina with broken bones and burns to her face and body. She remained hospitalized for four months. The Indonesian embassy appointed a firm of lawyers to defend her in court.
