THE CASE should have been thrown out. The police investigation was botched. The accuser's testimony was riddled with inconsistencies. But on March 20th last year Parti Liyani, an Indonesian maid accused by her Singaporean employer of attempted theft, was convicted and sentenced to 26 months in jail. That is where she would be now, were it not for her successful appeal to the High Court-a rare feat for a foreign domestic worker. On September 4th she was acquitted by Justice Chan Seng Onn, whose ruling declared her employer's motive for filing charges "improper" and reminded the lower-court judge "that an accused person is presumed innocent" until proven otherwise.
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