HK woman guilty of beating Indonesian maid

A Hong Kong woman who was accused of torturing her Indonesian maid in a case that sparked international outrage for the scale of its brutality was convicted of assault and other charges Tuesday.

A judge found Law Wan-tung guilty of 18 charges including grievous bodily harm, criminal intimidation and failure to pay wages or give time off work to Erwiana Sulistyaningsih.

Her case highlighted the vulnerabilities of migrants working as domestic staff across Asia and the Middle East.

Sulistyaningsih's case gained widespread international attention about a year ago after photos of her injuries circulated showing her face, hands and legs covered with scabs and lacerations, and blackened, peeling skin around her feet. Doctors at Amel Sehat Islamic Hospital where she was treated when she returned home to Sragen, Indonesia said Sulistyaningsih suffered from swelling of the brain from repeated blows to the head.

Amnesty International says there are thousands such as Sulistyaningsih who suffer conditions tantamount to modern-day slavery working in Hong Kong.

District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock said that based on the testimony by the maid and other witnesses, "I am sure the defendant did assault, wound and threaten (Sulistyaningsih) as charged."

The court heard that Law punched Sulistyaningsih in the mouth, fracturing some teeth; jammed a metal vacuum cleaner tube in her mouth, cutting her lip; and hit her on the back with a feather duster when she was sleeping. Law also forced Sulistyaningsih to stand naked in the bathroom during winter while she splashed her with water and pointed a fan at her.

Sulistyaningsih, who worked for Law for about eight months starting in June 2013, also wasn't allowed any days off and was not paid her salary.

Woodcock found Sulistyaningsih was a just “simple village girl,” given that the maid once believed her employer installed CCTV to monitor her at home and was unable to open the electronic lock on the front door, according to Hong Kong media.

She found Sulistyaningsih did not frame her employer and have a hidden financial agenda as Law’s lawyer Graham Harris, alleged.

Law was found not guilty of two other charges. She was ordered to pay US$3,700 Hong Kong in outstanding wages to Sulistyaningsih. Law was remanded into custody and is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27.

After the verdict, supporters applauded Sulistyaningsih, who was in court. She told reporters outside that she was happy "because I will get the justice from Hong Kong."

There are about 330,000 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, almost all female and most from the Philippines or Indonesia, earning a minimum wage of about $500 a month.

"When you see cases like [Erwiana's] — of [alleged] extreme physical abuse — it's tempting to see them as isolated," Robert Godden, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific coordinator, told Al Jazeera after Sulistyaningsih returned to Indonesia.

"But actually, when you look into the specifics…many of the factors leading to the abuse can be applied to thousands of migrant domestic workers: underpayment, the employer didn't pay the minimum wage; restrictions on movement; you can see that she was heavily indebted by the illegal recruitment fees charged by the agency; and you can see that she didn't know how to access justice."

Amnesty said the vulnerability of migrant workers is compounded by discriminatgtory labor laws and reluctant law enforcement.

"[Victims] tend to not to be taken seriously and are discouraged from filing complaints...That seems to have been the case [for Erwiana] when it wasn't until a lot of public pressure through the media came to bear on the police, that they actually started actively investigating.

"We have anecdotal reports from those who have tried to file reports before that they have been discouraged by the police."

Al Jazeera and wire services