A Malaysian housewife who was charged with abusing her Indonesian maid, in a case that made headlines around the world, has been ordered to enter her defence this month after a court saga spanning four years.
The maid, Nirmala Bonat, has alleged that her former employer, Yim Pek Ha, 37, attacked her with an iron and scalded her with boiling water as punishment for being slow at work.
'I have suffered enough. I want to go home and never come back,' said Ms Bonat, now in her twenties, after a Kuala Lumpur judge on Thursday ordered Yim to enter her defence on four counts of causing grievous harm.
The judge, Akhtar Tahir, ruled there was enough evidence for Yim to have to answer the charges.
'I do not need an expert to tell me the pain Nirmala has suffered. Just looking at the photographs of her injuries is enough,' he said.
He rejected arguments by Yim's lawyers that the injuries were selfinflicted and that Ms Bonat was mentally deranged. 'Nirmala gave consistent and clear evidence that was also supported by police investigations.
'She had to peel off her own skin from an electric iron and clean [the iron] after the accused pressed it on her back,' he said.