THE acquittal today of M.A.S. Ambika of the charge of murdering her Indonesian maid Adelina Lisao, drew the anger of a women’s rights group, who demanded an explanation from the attorney-general, FMT reports

Tenaganita executive director Glorene A. Das called the High Court’s decision “shocking”.

“She was a young woman made to work for two years without pay. She was a young woman whose body was brutalised. Her death has to mean something.

“Why have our courts failed her? Why has the Malaysian government failed her? Where is justice for Adelina?” she said in a statement today.

She said the Attorney-General’s Chambers must explain why the accused was acquitted even though there was allegedly “clear evidence” against her.

The 61-year-old Ambika was facing the mandatory death penalty under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the murder of her 26-year-old maid in Feburary last year. Ambika is reported to have been granted a full acquittal today after the prosecution asked for a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

“Tenaganita is distraught over this news. We cannot imagine the unbearable grief of Adelina’s family,” said Das.

Adelina died at the Bukit Mertajam Hospital on February 11 last year, a day after she was sent there to be treated for injuries consistent with a beating.

Her case had been brought to light by the Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim’s office.

Injuries in the head and face showed she had been brutally beaten while wounds in her hands and legs had become infected.

It was reported that Adelina had been forced to sleep with her employer’s dog on the porch  for two months. – February 21, 2018.