•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Indonesia promised on Tuesday to provide legal aid to a maid sentenced to a six-year jail term for attempting to murder her Malaysian employer in 2008 by poisoning her coffee.

Widyarka Ryananta, a top official at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, said Nurhayati Ahmad, 22, from Lombok, was sentenced by the Sessions Court in Kuantan, Malaysia, after pleading guilty to poisoning Jaharah Daud, 77.

“We hope the sentence will be lessened via an appeal. All we can do now is monitor the situation,” said Widyarka, the embassy’s information, social and cultural affairs counsellor.

According to reports, Jaharah had drunk coffee prepared by Nurhayati and complained that it had tasted bitter. It also had a strange smell and had turned gray.

Her daughter then checked a vegetable soup dish prepared by the maid and found that it had the same odor, media reports said.

Suspecting that the drink and soup had been mixed with poison, she lodged a police report.

The police reportedly found two bottles of poison in the house, and an coroner’s report confirmed the poisoning.

In a separate development involving Indonesian migrant workers, a Malaysian employer who faces murder charges over the death of an Indonesian maid, told a court on Tuesday that he was changing his plea from guilty to not guilty after learning that he would be hanged without a trial if he entered a guilty plea.

Muntik Binti Bani, 39, who was found beaten in the home of her Malaysian employers, died after being hospitalized for nearly a week.

Her employers, a couple from Klang Selangor, about 50 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, both face murder charges, according to an Indonesian Embassy official.

“[Muntik’s] backbone was broken, so was her right wrist, and there were bruises on her face,” Widyarka had said. “It is clear that she had been beaten.”

Muntik was found in a bathroom when police raided the family’s home on Oct. 20 on a tip-off from a local resident.

The defendant, Murugan, 35, first pleaded guilty to the murder charges, Antara reported.

“I plead guilty and I don’t need a lawyer,” Murugan told Judge Yazid Mohamad during the second hearing of the trial at Shah Alam Court on Tuesday. He spoke in Tamil language through an interpreter.

Yazid then proceeded to explain that if he pleaded guilty the punishment would automatically be capital punishment by hanging without a trial.

“You cannot represent yourself when you’re facing capital punishment by hanging,” said the judge.

Murugan then changed his plea and requested a hearing.

Teguh Wardoyo, head of the Foreign Ministry unit charged with protecting Indonesian nationals living overseas, said that the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had gathered a team of lawyers for the case.

“We hope that the Malaysian government enforces the law accordingly,” Teguh told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.