MAKKAH: The Court of Appeal in Makkah has asked the General Court in Madina to reconsider its ruling in the case of a Saudi woman convicted of assaulting her maid. The appeal court stated that the general court judge had handed down a verdict for the public right before the private right. The General Court in Madina sentenced the woman at the fourth hearing to three years in prison after being found guilty of human trafficking (public right), after it was proven that she had assaulted against the maid, Sumiati Mustapa, 23. The defendant's two lawyers, Ahmad Al-Rashed and Abdul Rahman Hajjar, appealed the verdict in Makkah. Meanwhile, Michael Tene, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' spokesman, said the ministry considers the sentence against the defendant “very light” compared to the violence the maid was subjected to. The verdict will be appealed by the maid's lawyer, he said. The sentence in such a case could be up to 15 years, he added.
