REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Members of Supervisory Team of Indonesian Workers in House of Representatives, Zulmiar Yanri was optimistic that Wilfrida Soik will be free of the death penalty in Malaysia. Soik, a female migrant worker from Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, was accused of killing parents of her employers.
“We are optimistic that she will be free. She was still underage when she first entered Malaysia using falsified document,” Yanri said recently.
Both laws in Malaysia and Indonesia provided maximum prison penalty on convicted underage person as it was categorized as children and adolescents. They were protected by Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) and cannot be given the death penalty.
Forensic medicine was conducted teeth and bones‘examination on her to know the age. The result, Soik was between 16 to 18 year old at the time of incident. Psychological test on Soik showed that she was depressed due to impact of human trafficking. Soik considered unstable and potential to do anything beyond her emotion.
According to Malaysian Law, Soik was charged with Penal Code Article of 302 Kanun Keseksaan Malaysia with death penalty if she was old enough to be indicted. In addition, maximum of life sentence can be imposed on her if it can be proven that she was still underage when the incident happened.