Manama: Doctors in Sri Lanka have found 23 nails in the body of a tortured domestic helper who returned to Colombo from Riyadh, a Saudi paper reported.
We have received this complaint from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo, who said the maid has been allegedly tortured by her sponsor, a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh told Saudi daily Arab News.
"We are looking for the sponsor. We were able to track down the Saudi recruitment agent in Riyadh and we will summon the sponsor to discuss this issue," the diplomat said.
Doctors at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in the Matara district, 140 km from Colombo, said the nails had been hammered into the domestic helper's body.
Dr. Kamal Weeratunge, who was treating her, claimed the nails had been heated up before they punctured her skin.
On a Sri Lankan television programme the domestic helper, identified as L.T. Ariyawathi, 49, showed the marks where the nails had gone through. She said that there were too many people to serve in the house where she worked.
She had to do the chores of all the occupants and when she wanted to rest they inserted the nails into her body as a punishment, she said.
