Police Arrests Employer of Tortured Maid

(Credits: SCMP)

The police have arrest a local woman, Lo Wan-tung, as she sought to board a flight to Thailand after it came to light that her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 23, had been tortured while employed at her Tseung Kwan O home. 

Lo, whose family employed Sulistyaningsih, alleged slapped and punched her every day, resulting in scabs and lacerations on her face, hands and legs, and blackened skin around her feet. While working for the family, Sulistyaningsih was only permitted to sleep for four hours a day, and, if she did her cleaning out of a particular order, or didn’t hear her being called, she would be beaten. It is also alleged that Lo threatened to kill her family if she revealed her ordeal.

Police officers have interviewed two other maids, aged 28 and 31, who claimed they were also abused by the same employer separately between 2010 and 2011.

Sulistyaningsih is recovering in an Indonesian hospital, but is unable to walk and stuggling to see. Her doctors said that she has suffered brain injuries and that it is too early to tell whether the damage is permanent.

Sulistyaningsih’s father says that his daughter wants to return to Hong Kong to seek justice and is planning to sue the government. Under Article 3 of the 1997 Bill of Rights Ordinance, the government has a duty to protect people from torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Hong Kong would not tolerate physical violence or psychological harm to anyone while migrant workers groups have called for changes in rules governing foreign maids, as this is not the first occurrence of torture of domestic helpers. Last year, a couple was sent to prison for torturing their Indonesian maid with a hot iron, a paper cutter and a bicycle chain.