A Saudi man has been given five years' probation, a part of which requires the payment of $143,000, for abusing the contract terms of an Indonesian woman he hired as a housemaid. The sentence, passed two weeks ago, followed the arrest of the unnamed Saudi in July over his employment of an Indonesian woman in 2002 in the Texan capital of Houston. The Saudi was reportedly in the US with his wife so that she could receive medical treatment, and signed a contract with the Indonesian lady stipulating a monthly salary of $1,300 for a six-day week of eight hours per day, in accordance with US labor law. The maid was with the Saudi man for six years before lodging a complaint accusing him of failing to pay the terms of the contract, as well as confiscating her passport and demanding she work beyond the contracted hours. When she contacted her consulate she was directed to US legal authorities and the attorney general ordered that the Saudi be detained. The court ruled that the Saudi be given five years' probation, with a part of the conditions that he pay the plaintiff $143,00 in salary owed, after hearing that the maid was forced to work 14 hours a day seven days a week. During the entire six years she was in the Saudi's employment she received no more than $11,000 for her work. “The accused is also involved in another case of violating US immigration law,” Abdul Rahman Al-Shaye', the Saudi Consul General in Houston, Ohio, told Okaz newspaper. “He stayed in the country longer than his visa permitted even though the period of his wife's medical treatment had ended.” Al-Shaye' added that a second lawyer had been assigned to seek the Saudi's deportation back to the Kingdom.
