15 Indonesians jailed for hostel riots in Malaysia
15 Indonesians jailed for hostel riots in Malaysia
Reuters, Seremban, Malaysia
A Malaysian court jailed 15 Indonesian textile workers on Tuesday for six months for rioting and taking part in an illegal assembly linked to Jan. 17 riots at their company's hostel accommodation.
"The 15 workers were charged with rioting, and alternatively for taking part in an unlawful assembly. All pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six months imprisonment," deputy public prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim told Reuters after the hearing at Seremban court, 64 km south of Kuala Lumpur.
"Four of them faced an additional charge of causing mischief during rioting. They claimed trial, which has been fixed from January 31 to February 4."
That charge carries a maximum of five years jail.
Malaysia has strict rules on what constitutes lawful assembly, requiring public gatherings of more than five people to obtain police permission.
Hundreds of Indonesian textile workers hurled stones, chairs and bottles at police in a riot after a team of narcotics officers raided their five-story hostel near their factory in Nilai town in the western state of Negeri Sembilan, police said.
Some 800 workers were at the hostel at the time, though police said they were unsure how many were involved in the riot.
Controversy surrounding Malaysia's Indonesian migrant workers has rumbled on for weeks after a series of violent incidents.
A senior Home Ministry official said last Sunday Kuala Lumpur would halve the 900,000 Indonesians registered to work here. Most are employed in the construction, manufacturing and plantation sectors and many also work as housemaids.
Authorities have also launched a crackdown on hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, most of whom are Indonesian.
Indonesia criticized its neighbor's decision to halve the number of registered Indonesians working in the country, saying the move could backfire and spark an influx of illegal workers.
Malaysia is home to more than a million foreign workers, most of them from poorer neighbors Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.