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Hong Kong woman gets six years for abusing, torturing maid

By Amy R. Connolly
Advertising for agency specialised in foreign domestic helpers in North Point, Hong Kong. Photo by Ohconfucius/cc
Advertising for agency specialised in foreign domestic helpers in North Point, Hong Kong. Photo by Ohconfucius/cc

HONG KONG, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A Hong Kong woman was sentenced Friday to six years in prison for beating and torturing her Indonesian maid in a case that sparked international outrage and underscored the need to protect migrant workers in the city.

Law Wan-tung was also ordered to pay a fine that amounted to less than $2,000. Wan-tung was found guilty earlier this month of 18 charges that included causing grievous bodily hard, criminal intimidation and failure to pay wages to her maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 24, and other members of her domestic staff.

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In handing down the six-year sentence, Judge Amanda Woodcock called for an investigation in Hong Kong and Indonesia into workers' conditions. After the verdict, Sulistyaningsih said the punishment should have been more severe.

"Giving her the guilty verdict is one thing, but giving her this light sentence is another," she said. "This sentencing may send a wrong signal to employers who mistreat or violate the rights of their domestic workers."

Sulistyaningsih arrived in Hong Kong in 2013. When she went home to her village in 2014 after working for about eight months, she was covered in bruises and too weak to walk. Her body was covered in scabs and lacerations and some of her skin was blackened and peeling. Sulistyaningsih said she was never paid for her work, except for $10 she was given the day she went back to Indonesia.

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The abuse came to light after photographs of Sulistyaningsih taken in an Indonesia hospital were made public.

More than 300,000 women, most from Indonesia and the Philippines, work as domestic maids in Hong Kong.

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