Verdict for Indonesian Maid Postponed as Defense Tries to Head Off Death Sentence
Posted on 30 September 2013.
Wilfrida’s mother reacts as the judge decides to postpone Monday’s verdict reading. (Photo courtesy of Change.org)
The Kota Bharu Court postponed the verdict of Wilfrida Soik, an Indonesian maid facing the death penalty for the 2010 murder of her employer, on Monday as the woman’s legal team moved to introduce new evidence alleging that she was a juvenile at the time of her arrest.
“I ask your honor not to make a decision today,” attorney Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said, according to the Indonesian news portal Liputan6.com. “The case involved a young woman who came from one of the poorest areas in Indonesia. I ask your honor to grant our request because I don’t want our trial system to be considered to only favor the rich. [I want it to] favor anyone.”
The court rescheduled Wilfrida’s verdict for Nov. 17, allowing time for Shafee to introduce evidence that reportedly proved the maid’s age was younger than the court believed.
“The team of attorneys requested that the trial be postponed,” the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Herman Prayitno, said in a text message on Monday. “They are asking for more time to prove that Wilfrida was 17 years old at the time the murder took place.”
The woman’s parents, Rikhardus Mau and Maria Kolo, were in the stands as judge Datuk Akhmad Zaidi Ibrahim decided to postpone the hearing. The legal team has been paid for, in part, by presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, who was present at the trial on Monday. Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmakers Rieke Dyah Pitaloka and Herman Prayito were also in attendance.
Prabowo, who previously made a highly publicized trip to visit Wilfrida behind bars, said he was happy with the delay.
“I thanked the Malaysian court for being very accommodating and helping with the trial,” he said. “Our goal is [for her] to be released because of mitigating conditions.”
Wilfrida’s age is central to her case, but conflicting accounts have confused the matter. Her passport listed her date of birth as June 8, 1989, but a christening letter from her Catholic church in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, said she was born on Oct. 12, 1993, according to reports on the Indonesian newspaper Tempo.co.
She told Migrant Care that she was trafficked to Malaysia when she was 17 years old by a recruitment agent who falsified the date of birth on her passport, the organization’s director Anis Hidayah said.
“Both Indonesia and Malaysia have ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which said that children under 18 years of age must be protected and should not be hired as a domestic worker,” Anis said. “If they were sanctioned with heavy criminal charges, the punishment should lessen.”
Now the woman’s legal team hopes to settle the matter with medical tests. Wilfrida will be escorted to a Malaysian hospital where doctors will attempt to determine her age by reviewing x-rays of her bones. The test has been used for years to determine a person’s age, but according to a study published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Bulletin, such tests are often inaccurate and are unable to account for individuals’ differing growth rates.
She will also undergo a psychiatric test to determine her state of mind at the time of the crime. Wilfrida was arrested for allegedly murdering her 60-year-old employer Yeap Seok Pen during an argument that turned violent, according to reports in local media at the time of her arrest. Yeap, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, reportedly accused Wilfrida of sleeping with her 64-year-old husband.
The maid had worked for the family for less than a month and lived in their home in Kampung Lubok, Pasir Mas, Kelantan. She claimed the woman often yelled at her and physically abused her during her time in the home.
On Dec. 7, 2010, as Yeap allegedly became violent, Wilfrida slashed her in the face with a butcher knife and walked out of the home. The woman’s son returned to find his mother dead.
Wilfrida was arrested not far from the house five hours later. She was remanded to the Pengkalan Chepa Prison, in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.
