Housewife jailed for abusing RI maid

Housewife jailed for abusing RI maid

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean housewife was jailed for 10 months for abusing her Indonesian maid on a record 79 occasions, media reports said on Thursday.

Sazarina Madzin, a 29-year-old mother of three, had admitted hitting her maid, Wiwik Setyowati, all those times in less than a year and threatening to kill her once.

The ethnic Malay woman was jailed on Wednesday for two months on each of the six maid abuse charges. Another 73 similar charges and one of criminal intimation were taken into consideration by the district court, according to The Straits Times.

The 22-year-old Wiwik recorded the 10 months of abuse in two dairies. Finally she reported the abuse, ending the brutal saga.

Wiwik was struck over the slightest mistake, with a tomato sauce bottle, chopping board, broom or chopping board, the court was told. The employer would also use her bare hands and feet to slap, punch, kick and pinch her as well.

The irony was not lost on Nor Azlan Sulaiman, Sazarina's husband and an active volunteer with the Red Cross and a mosque that helped deliver food and relief to Indonesians after last year's tsunami. He resigned this week from his position as an operations manager with a mosque to look after the children. -- DPA