Saudi official: "sticking heated nails into worker" is not abuse...

AP:

"A Saudi official has denied a Sri Lankan maid's allegations that the couple she worked for in the Arab kingdom hammered nails and needles into her body.Doctors in Sri Lanka have said they removed 13 nails and five needles from L.G. Ariyawathi after she returned from Saudi Arabia last month. The items had been driven into Ariyawathi's legs and forehead, they said.

But Saad al-Badah, the head of a Saudi government department responsible for foreign workers, told state television Tuesday night that "The whole story is baseless, ...it is nothing but blackmail by Sri Lankan labor firms, ..." he said....

The 49-year-old Ariyawathi has said the family she worked for in Saudi Arabia punished her by heating the nails and needles before sticking them into her. She worked in the kingdom for five months."