An Indonesian labour non-governmental group has called on Malaysian police to investigate the claim that a key witness in the Nirmala Bonat case had been threatened against testifying in favour of accused Yim Pek Har.

In a statement today, Migrant Care said apart from this, Indonesian Fermina Anunut, a domestic helper, could also have been pressured by her Malaysian employer against testifying for the prosecution.

Fermina, 16, is the cousin of Nirmala, an Indonesian domestic helper who was allegedly physically abused by her employer.

On Monday, Fermina had lodged a report at Tun HS Lee police station in Kuala Lumpur claiming that Indonesia's manpower director for the Nusa Tenggara province Abraham Saul Linyatohe had issued a verbal death threat against her.

Abraham Saul, who was attending the Nirmala court case earlier this week, had allegedly warned Fermina against helping Malaysians.

'Self-inflicted injuries'

On Tuesday, Yim's lawyers raised this issue in court. They claimed that Fermina was to testify that Nirmala was capable of self-inflicting her injuries.

Later that day, Abraham lodged a police report on the matter, denying he had issued any such threat. It is learnt that the police have quizzed several people in connection with this.

Meanwhile, Migrant Care country coordinator Alex Ong said Fermina should not stay with her employers and should instead be placed in the custody of an independent non-governmental organisation.

Nirmala's case had received widespread media coverage. The 19-year-old domestic helper claimed that she was physically abused over a period of five months by Yim, who allegedly scalded her with hot water and burnt her with an iron.