A top Indonesian envoy on Sunday said Jakarta will closely monitor further action taken by Malaysian authorities after an allegedly abused Indonesian maid fled from her employers here.

Ceriyati Dapin, 33, made headlines after she used a makeshift rope of knotted pieces of cloth to flee the 15th storey apartment where she worked after allegedly being beaten and having threats made to her life by her employers, reports said last week.

Malaysian police reportedly have arrested her boss, a 35-year-old woman who faces charges of wrongful confinement and causing injury with a dangerous weapon.

Authorities also suspended 19 maid agencies and 85 employers were blacklisted for failing to pay their domestic workers.

"The next step we would like is to see the Malaysian government seriously taking necessary action, in particular legal action," said Tatang Razak, the head of Indonesia's diplomatic mission to Malaysia.

Tatang, who had just arrived from Jakarta after accompanying Ceriyati home to her village, said Indonesians were anxiously waiting "serious action" from Malaysia.

"Now the people in Indonesia are very angry with the situation. It is a very sensitive matter and it keeps happening to our maids," he told AFP .

Lengthy legal proceedings

Tatang said the embassy in Kuala Lumpur was housing 10 serious maid abuse cases which were still pending court hearings. "They have really suffered. Some even after being tortured did not get their salaries," he said.

Tatang hoped Ceriyati's case would not drag on for years, referring to the lengthy trials of employers of another Indonesian maids who had allegedly faced years of abuse.

He said Nirmala Bonat had been kept in the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur for three years after her employers went on trial in 2004 on abuse charges that could see them jailed for 80 years.

"She is not allowed to go home as her passport is kept by the court, but her employers are released on bail," he told AFP , commenting on Nirmala's case, which has been postponed three times so far.

"At the end of this month there is another hearing for Nirmala. If it is postponed again, we will write openly to the Malaysian government to express our disappointment," he said.