A couple of Chinese origin convicted of starving their 24-year-old Cambodian maid to death in 2012 were each jailed for 10 years after Malaysia’s Federal Court found them guilty on Thursday of committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Soh Chew Tong, 49, the owner of a hardware store, and his 46-year-old wife Chin Chui Ling from Bukit Mertajam in Penang, had been found guilty of murder by the Court of Appeal in December 2015, Sin Chew Daily (Malaysia) reported.
The 24-year-old victim named Mey Sichan, a Cambodian who came to Malaysia in September 2011, had been a domestic worker at Soh and Chin’s home in Taman Asas Murni.
At 4am on March 31, 2012, Mey was reportedly found dead in a bunk bed at his employers’ home. According to a post-mortem report, she weighed just 17 kilograms at the time, and there were 29 old and fresh injuries on her body.
Her death was caused by acute peritonitis due to a perforated gastric ulcer associated with abuses and neglect.
Previously the courts learnt that the couple did not provide any meals for their maid, which prompted her to look for leftovers in the garbage. The maid’s body weight plunged, yet the couple did not take her to a clinic nearby or to call a doctor to check on her health.
A lawyer for the defendants claimed that Mey was provided food, citing from the statement from Chin’s mother, who had also suggested taking the sick maid to get medical attention, but the victim herself allegedly declined to do that.
So, the Federal Court ruled that Soh and Chin had known that the Cambodian maid’s health was fragile but “without any intention to cause [her] death”.
Judges in the senior court revised their punishment from the death penalty to 10 years in jail for both of the accused.
Only 10 years? This is a joke…
10 years is too light. Should be life sentence or hang untill mati
So sad for the helper and her family!
The couple are so cruel !
That its true..maid a human being too maid is a helper not a slave..
So true. Indeed. Afterall we need them to lighten our housework.
Fck 10yrs only shit they should be hung to death, the maid suffered to much for their cruelty then only 10yrs???wtf
We need a humane society. We need to teach our young to be caring and kind. Right from school. How can anyone do what this couple have done? What is happening to our people is very sad. Just take a look at the horrors and cruelties around us. We are becoming very materialistic, greedy, self-centred and bigotic. Is this how we want to be in the next twenty years?
Ten years in jail seems not enough.I just couldn’t comprehend why there are employers who treat their maids like an animal, but treat their pets like human, so cruel to their maids and yet loving and kind to their animal pets!!how pathetic!!!they give more importance to the life of an animal than to the life of a human being!!!
10 years???? omg. it must be life imprisonment. they are not human. let this monster couple suffer as the girl does. starve them to death so that they will know.
Maids are also humans, why have to be so cruel to them. Only 10 years, deduct public holidays, only left 5-6 yrars in jail, what’s the point??? Jail them for what??? Wasting taxpayers money. This is murder. Let those "good" humans inside the jail to really take care of this couple.
Because dropping soap for 10 years is more harsh than instant death
What is happineng? Life is lost just like this. They are monsters
Only 10 years?????
Omg this kind of employer need to go under medication in their brain they hve a mental problem?on the frst place why u hire a maid if u know u can’t feed her our life is so precious y u need to be cruel they’re human too???? staying in a jail is not enough 4 penalty u killed ur maid wtf? I hope u will suffer much more how u treated ur maid?ur heart will be rotten in the jail?
It should be for life for a couple, the helper no more life to support her love’s one, but the employer’s just a jail for 10years their still have a chance to see the world again after 10years.
Can’t imagine how people could be soooo cruel and heartless.. So sad for the poor girl and her family.
only in jail ??? while infact they are the reason why she is dead now ,,,
don’t feed.them also un those years while in prison let see if. they will survive ,,, then they know being starved
Why not death penalty?Why 10 years in jail only?
Ten years??? You must be kidding!!! WTF
Food is just a food once you swallowed it" it’s nothing it will come out a waste. Why it’s so hard for those employers to feed their maids which is the most important we need so that we will be able to do the house works and anything that has been ask us to do. Go to hell idiots when you die your body/flesh will be a waste"bcs all the worms will have it all..