Law Wan-tung, 44 – convicted of abusing her Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih earlier this year – was granted leave on Wednesday to challenge the Legal Aid Department’s refusal to provide assistance for her appeal.
Law filed an application for a judicial review last month after her request for legal aid was rejected by the department under “vague and unparticular terms”, reports the SCMP.
Madam Justice Queeny Au Yeung granted the leave this week , which will allow Law to ask the Legal Aid Department to re-evaluate their decision in the hope of obtaining a lawyer as Law tries to overturn her conviction.
Outside court, Patrick Wong, Law’s counsel, said his client would be left without a legal representative should the department reject her application again. Law claims she would be unable to defend herself in court because of her “inadequate knowledge of English” and the complexity of the case.
Law was found guilty of 18 out of 20 charges in February and sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of HKD15,000. The charges include eight of assault against Erwiana and another Indonesian maid, Tutik Lestari Ningsih.
Erwiana was employed by Law between May 2013 and January last year. It was revealed in the 18-day trial that Law once punched Erwiana so hard that her teeth were fractured, and on another occasion, caused cuts to Erwiana’s lips by twisting the metal tube from a vacuum cleaner inside her mouth.
The trial also heard a brutal story about how the maid was stripped of her clothes and splashed with cold water while Law pointed a fan at her.
Law did not pay Erwiana any salary either. The court heard that Edwiana was told her salary had gone towards her training and for compensation for the objects she had broken in Law’s flat.
Photo via Pixabay
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