Jakarta. Indonesian maid Wilfrida Soik escaped the death penalty after a Malaysian court on Monday acquitted her of murdering her elderly Malaysian employer on the ground of insanity, ending more than three years of legal battle that has drawn the attention of the Indonesian public and politicians alike.
Wilfrida was charged with murder under Malaysia’s tough Penal Code after she allegedly killed 60-year-old Yeap Seok Pen at the latter’s house in Pasir Mas in Malaysia’s Kelantan state in December 2010.
Judges at Malaysia’s Kota Bharu High Court on Monday said Wilfrida was proven to have murdered Yeap by stabbing her 42 times, but that she had done that while in a mentally ill condition, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, which has hired lawyers to defend Wilfrida, said Monday.
The 20-year-old has been suffering from an “acute and transient psychotic disorder,” and judges said she should be treated at Permai Hospital in the Malaysian state of Johor while waiting for the sultan of Kelantan to pardon her, before she could return to her family in Belu district, in East Nusa Tenggara province.
“[Wilfrida’s] IQ is also very low, rendering her unable to fully understand realities around her, as well as the legal consequence of her actions,” the embassy said in a statement. “Because of her mental condition, the judges said she was not guilty.”
The judges also accepted the lawyers’ defense that Wilfrida had committed the crime while she was underage, the embassy added. Under Malaysia’s law, capital punishment is not applicable to minors, and the child law should be used instead to charge such offenders.
Wilfrida’s actual age at the time of the crime was a focal point of her defense. Her passport carries a birth date of June 8, 1989, but her christening letter from a Catholic church in Indonesia reads Oct. 12, 1993.
Judges agreed that she was 17 when committing the crime and not 21 as suggested by the passport, the information of which was allegedly falsified by a trafficker sending her to Malaysia in 2010.
The case is not over yet, though, the embassy warned. “Prosecutors may still appeal the ruling within 14 days after receiving a written statement of the verdict.”
Monday’s ruling, nevertheless, was cheered by Indonesian activists who have been following closely Wilfrida’s case, including those from a nongovernmental group concerned with Indonesian migrant workers’ issues, Migrant Care, which has sent its Malaysian officer to attend court hearings on the case.
Source: The Jakarta Globe, April 7, 2014
