The District Court here sentenced two Filipina housemaids to five years in prison and 500 lashes each for hitting a disabled girl and tying her up in her house in Al-Faiha District here. The maids assaulted the girl, Emira, to steal her mobile phone. Emira's mother was away with her younger daughter who was hospitalized when the crime occurred. When she returned she saw Emira tied to chair. “It's saddening to think that her disability didn't deter them from hurting her just to snatch her mobile,” the mother said. Emira was tied up for at least five hours. Traumatized by the incident, Emira have moved to stay with her grandmother elsewhere, refusing to remain in the house anymore. Police tracked down the housemaids to southern Jeddah where they were found sheltered by some unidentified men – another crime in Saudi Arabia where women are not to be in seclusion with men other than their close blood relatives. Emira's mother said the verdict was too lenient for the physical and psychological trauma her helplessly disabled daughter had suffered. “I never thought they would reward like this for all the good I had done to them in the two years they were with me,” the mother said. “I treated them like my daughters.” – Okaz __
