RI maid charged with murder in S'pore

RI maid charged with murder in S'pore

SINGAPORE: An Indonesian maid was charged on Friday with murdering her 75-year-old Singaporean employer, a crime that carries the death penalty, police said.

The 26-year-old maid, identified as Barokah, was arrested on Thursday, a day after police found her female employer lying in a pool of her own blood with multiple injuries at the back of their apartment block.

The victim, Wee Keng Wah, lived in one of the apartments with her husband and the maid.

Police said an investigation and forensic examination of the crime scene pointed to murder. They did not provide any other details.

More than 140,000 domestic workers mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka work in Singapore and cases of employers abusing their maids who sometimes retaliate frequently appear in the media.

Last month, two young Indonesian maids were sentenced to lengthy jail terms after the High Court found them guilty of killing their Singaporean employer in 2004. They were spared the death penalty when the judge ruled they were guilty of culpable homicide, not murder. --AFP