Indonesian caregiver sentenced to 1 year in prison for injuring employer who withheld her passport & air tickets

An Indonesian national employed as a caregiver in Yilan County was sentenced to serve one year in prison followed by deportation, after she held a knife to an elderly woman’s neck, causing injury, in an attempt to get her passport and air tickets back so that she could go home.

According to the findings of the Yilan District Court, at around 3:30 am on August 8, 2021, 31-year-old Puji Lestari threatened the 81-year-old woman, named Wu, with a knife . According to video evidence tendered to the court, Lestari held Wu down on a bed for around one minute with a knife to the old woman’s throat. During the incident, Wu sustained a 9-centimeter-long cut on her neck.

Lestari then transferred Wu to a wheelchair and wheeled her to the door of a room that contained Lestari’s passport and air tickets. However, the door was locked, and Wu insisted that the key was in possession of her son, who was asleep upstairs. Lestari called Wu’s son downstairs, and when he saw his mother’s injury, he called the police.

Prosecutor’s charged Lestari with attempted homicide. However, the court believed that Lestari had no intention of killing Wu, and convicted her for the crime of injury. Lestari had no previous convictions, had confessed to the crime, and had a good attitude. Therefore the court sentenced Lestari to a one year term of imprisonment to be followed by deportation.

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