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Taipei. A Taiwanese garment factory owner was sentenced to six months in jail for forcing three Muslim Indonesian employees to eat pork, but she could escape prison by paying a fine, a court official said on Friday.

Chang Wen-lin was sentenced for coercion after she confessed to pushing the Indonesian women to eat the meat, which is forbidden in Islam, while they were employed at her factory from September 2008 to April 2009.

However, in light of her confession and her decision to compensate the women, she will be allowed to pay a fine of 60,000 Taiwan dollars ($1,900) in exchange for a two-year suspended sentence, a spokesman for the Panchiao District Court said.

Chang, the owner of the Hsin Hua Hang factory, had threatened to cut the women’s salaries if they refused to eat the same meals that were given to local employees, according to prosecutors, who had sought an eight-month jail term for her.

The factory owner, whose permit to hire foreigners was revoked in the wake of the scandal, initially defended herself by saying she thought that pork would provide the women with energy, but later agreed to pay them 150,000 Taiwan dollars each.

Susan Chen, from the Taiwan International Workers Association, whose organization cared for the women after they were removed from the factory by labor rights officials following their complaint, said Chang initially hired the women as caregivers, but then ordered them to work at the factory.

Chen identified the Indonesians as Tarsinah, Suswati and Wasilah, who now have new jobs in Taiwan.

Indonesia’s National Commis sion on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) expressed anger over the incident.

“This goes against basic human rights, which include the right to freedom of worship,” a commission member, Johny Nelson Simanjuntak, told the Jakarta Globe. “How dare anyone force others to eat food they are prohibited from eating.”  
 

AFP, AP, JG