Tortured maid returns home

Sri Lanka (AP):

A Sri Lankan maid returned from her job in Saudi Arabia with 24 nails inside her body, the result of torture by the family who employed her, a doctor and government official said yesterday.

L.G. Ariyawathi's body is riddled with needles and nails, which are scheduled to be removed Friday, a doctor confirmed yesterday.

Ariyawathi, 49, returned to Sri Lanka on Saturday from Saudi Arabia and was hospitalised the next day with severe pain at a facility about 100 miles (160 kilometres) away from the capital, Colombo, according to media reports.

She told a local newspaper that her employers tortured her with the nails as punishment.

"They (employer and his family) did not allow me even to rest. The woman at the house had heated the nails and then the man inserted them into my body," Ariyawathi was quoted as saying in the Lakbima, a newspaper published in local Sinhalese language.

She told the paper that she went to Saudi Arabia in March and was paid only two months' salary, with her employer withholding three months' salary to buy an air ticket to send her home.

Dr H.K.K. Satharasinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital said X-rays show Ariyawathi has 24 nails and needles in her body. The nails range from 1-2 inches.

Her initial puncture wounds have healed over, the doctor told The Associated Press by telephone. However, she finds it difficult to walk because she has two nails in her knee and two in her ankles.

Another needle is in her forehead, and the rest are in her hands, he said.

"Her condition is stable, but we are giving antibiotics and painkillers," Satharasinghe said, adding that doctors will begin removing the nails tomorrow.