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Kuala Lumpur. A Malaysian court Monday sentenced a market trader to death for murdering his Indonesian maid, one of a series of abuse cases that prompted Jakarta to ban domestic helpers working in Malaysia.

A. Murugan, 36, was charged with the murder of Indonesian Muntik binti Bani, who died in hospital on October 25 last year.

Her death was among a string of shocking cases of mistreatment of domestic workers that has strained ties between Malaysia and Indonesia, leading Jakarta last June to ban maids from working there.

Last week Malaysia said a deal with Indonesia on the working conditions of maids had stalled and the ban remains in force.

During the trial high court Judge Mohamad Yazid Mustafa said Murugan had failed to raise a reasonable doubt against the charge, state news agency Bernama reported.

Witnesses told the court they had seen Muntik’s employer beating her with a broomstick and that Murugan’s wife had lodged three police reports against him for domestic abuse, it reported.

Malaysia is one of Asia’s largest importers of labour and depends heavily on domestic workers, who come mainly from Indonesia, but it has no laws governing their working conditions.

An average of 50 maid abuse cases are reported annually out of the 300,000 Indonesian maids working in the country, according to Malaysian officials. But Indonesia says 1,000 maids face violence and mistreatment every year.


Agence France-Presse