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The 10-month trial involving Indonesian domestic worker Parti Liyani was “very, very difficult,” said her lawyer Anil Balchandani.
On the one hand, there was “the sheer amount of elements that we had to deal with,” said Balchandani, who was acting pro bono.
They also faced “a very tenacious group of prosecutors”, not to mention “a very prominent family.”
Parti, 46, a former maid at the then Changi Airport Group and Surbana Jurong president Liew Mun Leong, was charged with robbing her family. She was sentenced to 26 months in jail after a district court found her guilty in March last year.
But, after maintaining her innocence for nearly four years, she was finally acquitted last week in Superior Court in a ruling that also raised questions about the motivation of Mr. Liew and his family to file a police report against their former maid.
The Attorney General’s Office had said it was studying the sentence to assess what additional measures, if any, should be taken in light of Judge Chan Seng Onn’s ruling.
Balchandani’s comments were made in an interview with the Humanitarian Organization for the Economy of Migration (Top). The interview, uploaded to Home’s website on Wednesday, was conducted two weeks before Judge Chan delivered his verdict last Friday.
Parti left a woman free on Tuesday after she was acquitted of a fifth and final count, for fraudulent possession of property. It came four days after she was acquitted of four counts of stealing $ 34,000 worth of items, including clothing, handbags and watches.
Home had contacted Balchandani of the Red Lion Circle law firm in late 2017 after Parti was indicted on four counts of robbery.
He had previously represented a migrant worker who was charged with a reckless act and won an acquittal and had also obtained probation for a young man facing up to 20 years in prison and 15 strokes of the baton on drug trafficking charges.
He agreed to represent Ms Parti and made the case that she had not stolen any items: some had bought them, some had been given to her, some had been discarded and some had refused to pack in boxes intended to be shipped to Indonesia . after she was fired.
LACK OF PHOTOS
In his interview with Home, Mr. Balchandani also spoke about the low points of the trial, such as not having a “strong defense.”
“One of the disadvantages of our case was that Parti … she never really took many pictures of herself, to identify herself, to look … I had these items, I bought them, I shared these pictures with whoever it was. “
The most memorable moment was when the items were allowed to go before the appeals court to appreciate their condition, for example the old DVD player and the outdated jewelry.
He said, “Every item had to be explained. The prosecution had its own side to the story, and we basically had to convince a judge that, look, why would someone steal garbage?”
Mr. Balchandani had also approached a number of senior attorneys for help, and was grateful for their advice.
What surprised him was Ms. Parti’s determination. Beyond the pressures of the legal process, she also had a family to care for.
He pointed out that if she had pleaded guilty in 2017, she would be home by now, or even sooner.
“He could have restarted his life, continued to work in another country and think about what happened in October 2016 (as a nightmare).”
Mr. Balchandani also gave credit to non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
“Most of the work is actually done by a lot of people from Home and the other NGOs who step up … the grueling activity (of) meeting with (those they are helping) every week, every month, giving them what I hope will something good can happen. “
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