Hong Kong Arrests Woman Accused of Torturing Maid

Hong Kong police today arrested a woman accused of torturing her Indonesian maid, a day after thousands rallied in protest of the maid's treatment. Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 23, returned to Indonesia last week, reportedly unable to walk thanks to her injuries. She's now being treated at a hospital there, according to the AP. Images circulating among Hong Kong's Indonesian community show her with scabs and lacerations on her face, hands, and legs, and blackened skin around her feet. Hong Kong police today arrested her employer, a 44-year-old woman, at the city's airport, the AFP reports.

Officials also traveled today to Indonesia to interview Sulistyaningsih, the BBC reports. Advocacy groups say that 5,000 people attended a march yesterday demanding justice for Sulistyaningsih, even as the groups identified two more workers allegedly abused by the same woman. "There was a time she asked me to commit suicide because I told her I did not want to work there anymore," one woman tells the South China Morning Post. She says she was paid roughly $645 for a year's work. Another woman said the employer had threatened to kill her while brandishing a knife. (More Hong Kong stories.)