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Family is 'very happy' with Wilfrida's release
Thankful: Wilfrida Soikâs mother, Maria Kolo (right), strikes a pose with her late husband, Rikardus Mau, after they visited their daughter in Malaysia earlier this year
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Thankful: Wilfrida Soikâs mother, Maria Kolo (right), strikes a pose with her late husband, Rikardus Mau, after they visited their daughter in Malaysia earlier this year. Maria says she is very happy that her daughter, who was on death row for allegedly killing her employer in Malaysia, has been released. (Tribunnews.com) (right), strikes a pose with her late husband, Rikardus Mau, after they visited their daughter in Malaysia earlier this year. Maria says she is very happy that her daughter, who was on death row for allegedly killing her employer in Malaysia, has been released. (Tribunnews.com)
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span class="inline inline-center">Thankful: Wilfrida Soik's mother, Maria Kolo (right), strikes a pose with her late husband, Rikardus Mau, after they visited their daughter in Malaysia earlier this year. Maria says she is very happy that her daughter, who was on death row for allegedly killing her employer in Malaysia, has been released. (Tribunnews.com)
One of Wilfrida Soik's family members, Kornelis Bere Mau, said Wilfrida's mother, Maria Kolo, was very happy that her daughter, who was on death row for allegedly killing her employer in Malaysia, had been released.
Kornelis said Maria saw the Putrajaya Appeals Court's decision to free Wilfrida in a trial on Tuesday as a miracle.
'We want to express our deep gratitude to God, who helped our daughter so that she could be released [from death row]. We only have tears of joy upon receiving this news from our friends,' Kornelis, the spokesperson of Wilfrida's family, told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday.
He said that shortly after they received information on the court's ruling, all of Wilfrida's family members prayed to express their gratitude about her release.
He added that for more than three years, they all had been worried about Wilfrida's fate before they finally received the news that made them really happy on Tuesday.
Kornelis said Wilfrida's mother, Maria, could not say anything and just cried after she heard about her daughter's release from the journalists who visited her house in Kampung Kolo Ulu in Faturika village, Raimanuk district, in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Tuesday, for an interview.
On behalf of the family, Kornelis said, he thanked all parties who had helped Wilfrida, starting from when she first faced legal issues in 2010 up until she was released on Tuesday.
'I also convey our sincere gratitude to Pak Prabowo [Gerindra Party chief patron and former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto]. Since the very beginning until the court ruled on Wilfrida's release, he had always been present in Malaysia,' he said.
Kornelis said they had asked the Belu administration to help finance one of Wilfrida's family members who was assigned to pick her up from Malaysia. He said that without such support, it was unlikely for the family, who was facing economic hardship, could travel to Malaysia.
PIAR NTT executive director Sarah Lerry Mboeik said the release of Wilfrida did not mean that the case ended. She said the NGO would ask the Belu Police to investigate the alleged forgery of Wilfrida's documents so that she could work in Malaysia although she was still underage.
'After she returns to NTT, we will give legal assistance to Wilfrida. We will ask the police to take legal measures against officials suspected responsible in the document falsification. Wilfrida was born on Oct.12, 1993, but on her passport, it stated that she was born on June 8, 1989,' said Lerry.
She said legal measures must be taken against anyone involved in illegal worker dispatching processes so that there would be no more children suffering in the way that Wilfrida did. (ebf) (++++)
