Brunei employer sentenced to 6 years in jail for abusing maid

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN — The High Court recently sentenced a local woman to six years of imprisonment for gross abuse of her maid.

She was also ordered to settle a compensation of BND10,000 or serve an additional two months in prison in default of payment.

Siti Atiqah binti Md Raduan was convicted after a trial, on five charges of assault by repeatedly pinching the maid’s private parts and causing disfigurement; of hitting the maid repeatedly with a stone pestle on several occasions, in addition to striking the maid’s hands with a belt and causing disfigurement to one of her fingers.

The offences were committed between March 2011 and September 2012 at the family home in Perumahan Polis Kawalan Diraja along Jalan Istana Darul Hana.

Justice Dato Paduka Haji Hairol Arni bin Haji Abdul Majid convicted the defendant on all five counts, despite her defence through the representation of lawyer Rozaiman Abdul Rahman that she had suffered from schizophrenia since she was 12.

The court found the defendant had indeed suffered from schizophrenia from the age of 12, which was diagnosed not long after the offences were committed. However, the psychiatrist’s report on her mental evaluation ruled that she was not of unsound mind during the commission of the offences.

The court, on reflecting the seriousness of the offences and in a display of ‘abhorrence’ towards maid abuse, rejected lawyer Rozaiman’s fight for his client to receive a sentence to be on probation.

However, lawyer Rozaiman applied for a stay of execution of his client’s sentence, pending an appeal, which was granted by the court.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Rozaimah binti Abdul Rahman prosecuted the case.