RIYADH, Sep 2 ( Arab News): Saudi officials have refuted claims that a sponsor in Riyadh hammered nails into the body of his Sri Lankan housemaid as punishment.

“These allegations against the Saudi employer are baseless and the whole episode looks like one big drama,” said Saad Al-Baddah, chairman of the Saudi Arabian National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM), which is responsible for the recruitment and management of foreign workers in the Kingdom.

He told Arab News on Wednesday that 49-year-old L.T. Ariyawathi has signed a letter acknowledging her last salary and said that she did not experience any problems with her sponsor before she left Saudi Arabia. Al-Baddah described the torture allegations as a figment of the maid’s imagination, adding that Saudi authorities are wondering how the nails and needles were embedded into her body.

The maid did not go to the doctors straight from the airport, only after a few days, Al Baddah said. He added that the Saudi sponsor, who is over 60, suffers from heart conditions. “The sponsor’s doctors have advised him to do only 25 percent of his normal work because of his weak heart,” he said. “How can a person in such poor health be able to do a strenuous activity like hammer nails into a woman’s body?” He added that a woman with so many nails inside her could not survive for weeks.

Al-Baddah met chairman of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLFBE) Kingsley Ranawake at his office on Tuesday and pledged all cooperation in any investigation into the maid’s case.

The Saudi Embassy in Colombo also issued a statement Wednesday casting doubt on Ariyawathi’s claims. “The important factor is that this housemaid cannot pass security checks and sophisticated machines at Riyadh and Colombo International Airports with these metal things inside her body,” an embassy spokesman said.

He added that the Saudi ambassador was giving his personal attention to the matter and constantly being updated by officials from Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry.

Meanwhile, Arab News has learned that the Sri Lankan Ambassador Ahmed A. Jawad has submitted an official memo on Wednesday to a senior Saudi Foreign Ministry official attached to the consular division. Sources say that the letter was handed over to the ministry on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.

The Sri Lankan Embassy received the medical report of the housemaid on Saturday from SLBFE and it is waiting for approval from its government before presenting the document to the Saudi Foreign Ministry.

Ranawake, who is currently in Riyadh on a goodwill mission, was unavailable for comment.