Indonesia criticises Saudi 'justice' for Sumiati

Reportedly, Indonesia is incensed by the acquittal by a Saudi court of a woman who was already convicted earlier for wickedly torturing her Indonesian maid. Torture of overseas maids in the Gulf kingdom can be very psychopathic, as there are also reports of rapes and murders. Legally sanctioned slavery, especially the organised traffiking as well as sale of young Africans, was prevalent on the Arabian Peninsula for several hundreds of years before it was formally made illegal in 1962. Slave-mastering mentality and also the 'traditional' idea of punishing 'inferior' categories of human beings, including poorer co-religionists, with wicked methods seem to persist among a section of the wealthy, influential and outwardly 'modern' elites in the 'austere' Saudi society. The use of the fairly crude expression "cut foreign fingers" by a high-ranking minister recently shows that some anachronistic methods of punishment are still present in the minds of some ruling Saudi elites.