A 40-year-old female Kuwaiti citizen allegedly inflicted various burns on the body of her elderly Sri Lankan maid leading her to be detained on charges of torture, Al Anba reports. It is believed her three underage sons were also participants in this heinous act.
The daily said, quoting sources, that the maid sent a distress call to her country’s embassy, revealing that she was being tortured and detained by her sponsor, who is residing in Farwaniya governorate.
The Ministry of Interior dealt with this case in a very decisive manner sending a security team from Farwaniya to go the house, and free the Sri Lankan woman. The security men saw the burns on her body, so she was taken to the police station to register a case against the sponsor for deliberate torturing the victim with fire causing severe harm.
She was sent to her country’s embassy to complete legal procedures and have a forensics report done where the severe injuries and burnt marks were documented on various parts of her body. The Sri Lankan embassy notified the Ministry of Interior and informed them of the contents of the report and the plea for help they had received.
According to a retread of the events leading to the torture, the Sri Lankan maid had asked her sponsor that she be allowed to return to Sri Lanka permanently as she was very old. She was refused and tortured. The victim in her statement to the police said the sponsors three sons used to hold her down while her female sponsor used to heat various items to burn her shoulders, chest and various parts of her body. The three under aged sons were released after juvenile felony case was registered against them.
There have been many cases of sponsors torturing their housemaids in the last few years. In February 2020, the Criminal Court had overturned a two years jail sentence with hard labor against a citizen who was accused of torturing his housemaid with a hot spoon in different parts of her body. The forensic report supported her complaints, and she had to undergo treatment for over 30 days.