IPOH, April 6 — An Indonesian Embassy worker told the High Court today that there was no indication of coaching when a maid from his country called him to allege she was raped by her employer, Paul Yong.
Riki Sapari, 39, an employee of the embassy attached to its Labour division’s complaints section, said that he did not hear any others apart from the person who called him.
“There was no sign of voices or sounds during the call apart from [the caller],” he said in reply to a question by Deputy Public Prosecutor Datuk Jamil Aripin who asked if there were any other voices during the phone conversation.
The witness named the complainant during his testimony but Malay Mail has redacted this information to protect her identity.
When Jamil asked why he disagreed when the defendant’s lawyer suggested that the caller was coached on the phone conversation, Riki said it was because she sounded genuinely distraught.
“It is because from the way she spoke in that situation, (I) could hear crying, panic and she was scared,” Riki said.
Riki was testifying in the trial of former Perak executive council member Paul Yong who was accused of raping his Indonesian maid.
Riki also said he noted in his internal report that it was a sexual harassment instead of rape as he had not known the extent of the alleged abuse.
“I wrote sexual harassment because based on my understanding rape is also include in the sexual harassment.
“I, at that moment, was not in the position to decide whether it was rape as in penetration or other forms, and because of that, I informed the police so that they could investigate immediately,” he said.
Jamil was assisted by deputy public prosecutors Liyana Zawani Mohd Radzi and Ainul Wardah Shahidan prosecuted while the defence team comprised lawyers Datuk Rajpal Singh and Salim Bashir.
The hearing was held before judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Riki told the court he received a call from the maid at about 11am on July 8, 2019, who sounded fearful and in a panic, asking for help to be rescued after allegedly being raped by her employee.
On August 23 last year, Yong, 51, a former Perak exco for housing and local government, public transport, non-Muslim affairs and new villages, pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court in Ipoh to the charge of raping his Indonesian maid.
The Tronoh assemblyman was accused of committing the offence at his house in Meru Desa Park on July 7, last year between 8.15pm and 9.15pm.
