Former maid tells Hong Kong court of 'torture' by employer

An Indonesian former maid today told a court for the first time how she was starved, beaten and ritually humiliated by her Hong Kong employers in a case that has sparked international outrage.
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih described in vivid detail how for months she lived on nothing but bread and rice, slept only four hours a day and was beaten so badly by her former employer, Law Wan-tung that she was knocked unconscious.
"I was tortured," she told the courtroom through a translator on the opening day of the trial.
"She often hit me, sometimes she would hit me from behind, sometimes she hit me in the front. I was hit so often sometimes I got a headache. She hit me in my mouth (so) I had difficulty breathing." the maid told the court.

Opening the prosecution, solicitor Louisa Lai detailed the harrowing litany of abuse the former maid allegedly suffered including how she was told to wrap her sore-covered feet in plastic bags "because of the smell".
Whereas the employer Law Wan-tung denied all charges of abuse.

Sulistyaningsih's case has shone a spotlight on the plight of migrant domestic helpers in Asia and the Middle East after reports of torture and even killings.
In March, a Malaysian couple was sentenced to hang for starving their Indonesian maid to death, while in the same week a Singaporean couple pleaded guilty to abuse after their helper lost 20 kilos in seven months.

Such cases have prompted a clampdown on domestic worker visas in some countries, Myanmar suspended a seven-month-old scheme in September and Indonesia has pledged to stop sending domestic workers abroad from 2017.
Pictures of Sulistyaningsih, who was admitted to a hospital in Indonesia in January emaciated and in a critical condition, sparked widespread anger in her home country and even drew comment from the president.
But today the 23-year-old remained calm as she described in graphic detail her alleged abuse, including one incident where she was stripped naked, sprayed with water and made to stand in front of a fan in the middle of winter.

Hong Kong is home to nearly 300,000 maids, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Thousands took to the streets in May calling for better working conditions and greater legal protection for domestic helpers and the case remains a rallying point for many.