Jakarta Globe – AFP, Dec 08, 2014
Hong Kong. A former Indonesian maid on Monday told a court that she was starved, beaten and ritually humiliated by her Hong Kong employer in a case that sparked international outrage.
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih arrives at the Wanchai Law Courts to begin giving evidence against her former employer who is accused of abuse and torture, in Hong Kong on Monday. (AFP Photo/Isaac Lawrence) |
Hong Kong. A former Indonesian maid on Monday told a court that she was starved, beaten and ritually humiliated by her Hong Kong employer in a case that sparked international outrage.
Erwiana
Sulistyaningsih described in vivid detail how for months on end she lived on
nothing but bread and rice, slept only four hours a day and was beaten so badly
by her former employer Law Wan-tung that she was knocked unconscious.
“I was
tortured,” she told the packed courtroom through a translator on the opening
day of Law’s trial. “She often hit me … sometimes she would hit me from behind,
sometimes she hit me in the front. I was hit so often sometimes I got a
headache … She hit me in my mouth [so] I had difficulty breathing.”
Erwiana’s
case has shone a spotlight on the plight of Hong Kong’s nearly 300,000 domestic
workers, drawing angry crowds onto the streets in May to protest for better
working conditions.
Opening the
prosecution, solicitor Louisa Lai detailed the harrowing litany of abuse the
former maid allegedly suffered, including how she was told to wrap her
sores-covered feet in plastic bags “because of the smell.”
International
condemnation
Pictures of
the 23-year-old, who was admitted to a hospital in Indonesia in January
emaciated and in critical condition, drew international condemnation as they
spread on social media.
But on
Monday, Erwiana, dressed in a purple jacket and white woollen jumper, remained
calm as she told the court how Law had even “scratched my nose and my face”
with her bare hands.
In one
incident, she described being stripped naked, sprayed with water and made to
stand in front of a fan in the bathroom in the middle of winter.
Prosecutors
also allege Law used household items such as a mop, vacuum cleaner and a
clothes hanger as “weapons” against Erwiana.
“She put a
vacuum cleaner into my mouth … and twisted it round my lips. It was bleeding
and very painful,” Erwiana said.
‘Slavery-like’
conditions
Law faces
21 charges — also relating to two other former domestic helpers — including
grievous bodily harm with intent, criminal intimidation and failure to pay
wages. The most serious are punishable by up to life in prison.
The
44-year-old mother-of-two was arrested in January as she tried to board a
flight to Thailand but was released on bail pending the trial.
Dressed in
a light brown coat and thick-rimmed glasses, Law kept her head down as her
former maid described the alleged abuse, occasionally shooting her a glance.
Earlier she
had pleaded not guilty to all but one of the charges against her, admitting
only that she had failed to arrange insurance for Erwiana.
Hong Kong
is home to nearly 300,000 maids, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Amnesty
International last year condemned the “slavery-like” conditions faced by some
domestic helpers in the southern Chinese city, and accused authorities of
“inexcusable” inaction.
On Monday
around 20 members of an organization representing domestic workers in the city
staged a protest outside the court, waving signs saying “No to modern day
slavery” and featuring pictures of Erwiana.
“Justice
for Erwiana!” and “We are workers, we are not slaves!” they shouted.
Virtual prisoner
Erwiana on
Monday said she became a virtual prisoner in the house where she worked after
she was caught trying to run away. After that Law took her passport and wallet
and locked her in the house at all times, she said.
It was only
when she was too weak to talk that Law bought her a ticket for home.
“She
threatened to kill my parents back home if I talk about the torture to anyone,”
Erwiana said.
The case is
continuing.
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