Adelina, Rozita, Jong-nam - what on earth is going on?

When we saw pictures of abused domestic worker Adelina Lisao last year, the heart bled. Bruised, battered and bleeding, her final indignity was to be made to sleep outside with the dog of the family she had come to work for. By the time someone finally intervened to save her, it was too late.

It called to mind the case of Nirmala Bonat, another poor young Indonesian domestic worker who had been badly abused by her employers between January and April, 2004. 

Thankfully, Nirmala was saved before she died. Her employer Yim Pek Ha was jailed 12 years, and she and her husband Hii Ik Ting were ordered to pay RM129,147.20 in damages for abusing and injuring the domestic worker.

Now that doesn’t make things right, but at least there was a feeling that the courts had acted strongly to send a message that the cruelty and abuse would not go unpunished.

In another case, Soh Chew Tong and his wife Chin Chui Ling were jailed 10 years for committing culpable homicide, after their Cambodian domestic worker Mey Sichan was found dead at the couple’s shophouse in April 2012. 

Mey had fresh injuries on her body and was severely dehydrated with symptoms indicating starvation. She weighed only 26kg at the time of her death. Once again, despite the tragedy, our courts made it clear that abuse would not go unpunished.

So I won’t lie. I was in disbelief when I read reports that the woman charged with Adelina’s death, one MAS Ambika (below), was going to be given a discharge. What could that possibly mean?

Justice seen to be done

Stunned, I asked my lawyer friend Samantha Chong, a former deputy public Prosecutor, why the case could have collapsed and a seemingly culpable person be let loose.

She said that while originally going for murder charges the prosecution must have felt that was not a strong enough case for that charge.

“If the cause of death is malnutrition, a prosecutor might have a stronger case for culpable homicide than murder,” she told me. 

“There is a distinction between intention and knowledge. Between murder and culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and causing death by negligence.”

“Only the prosecutor will know best what was the exact reason they decided to drop the case. They might have other undisclosed facts which are privy only to the prosecutor and defence. 

"However, in this case, a precious life was lost and it is only right for the public to demand an explanation. Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.”

So is there some sort of loophole here meaning that no one will be held accountable for the cruel treatment dished out to Adelina that led to her death?

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim (above) said yesterday that Attorney-General Tommy Thomas will “personally investigate this matter to look into the next course of action.”

This called to mind the confusion surrounding the case of Rozita Mohamad Ali, who made headlines after she pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to her domestic worker.

The Sessions Court initially just sentenced Rozita to be bound over for five years on a good behaviour bond of RM20,000.

Then the prosecution appealed and she was slapped with a more appropriate eight-year jail sentence by the High Court. The follow-up was that she was awarded a stay of that jail term and freed on bail of RM25,000 with two sureties pending disposal of her appeal.

Bear in mind she pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to 19-year-old Indonesian domestic worker Suyanti Sutrinso using a knife, a mop, a clothes hanger, an iron bar, a cat's toy and an umbrella at a house in Petaling Jaya between 7am and noon on June 21, 2016.

Does Rozita wandering free sound like justice to anybody?

Consistency in the law

I have to admit I am at a loss. Often we search for consistency and order in the justice system but it’s lacking.

Another recent example was the case of Kim Jong-nam (below), the elder brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The poor man was murdered in broad daylight at KLIA2 on Feb 13, 2017.

Seven North Korean agents including Ri Ji Hyon, Hong Song Hac, O Jong Gil, and Ri Jae Nam, were believed to have been part of the plot. They fled Malaysia on the day he died, leaving behind the two women who actually rubbed the VX nerve agent poison into the victim’s face. 

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong were left to face the music and murder charges.

In the weeks after the murder, we were bullied by North Korea who at one point even appeared to hold our embassy staff hostage.

After a trial that seemed to go nowhere, Siti AIsyah was released following a political appeal, and Huong had a reduced charged which will see her released and return to her country in two weeks’ time. 

Any way you look at it, it seems as if the political will to pursue justice in Jong-nam's tragic death is virtually non-existent.

So as the nation sees an ex-premier in the dock over the 1MDB scandal, numerous unanswered questions over Wang Kelian, Kevin Morais, Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat, Teoh Beng Hock and many others… who among us feels confident that the truth will emerge and justice will prevail?

Perhaps our folly was in thinking that a poor, defenceless girl like Adelina was going to get the justice in death that she was denied in life.

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MARTIN VENGADESAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team. - Mkini