A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Kamaludin Md Said, in acquitting Lim Li Li, said the prosecution had failed to satisfy the elements of the charge.

“The conviction is not safe,” said Kamaludin who sat with Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Nordin Hassan.

Lawyer A Srimurugan submitted that the offence did not amount to trafficking a person just because the maid was ill-treated.

“Intention to traffic is an essential ingredient of the offence,” said the lawyer, who was assisted by Jamil Mohamed Shafie.

Deputy public prosecutor Nurul Farhana Khalid urged the bench to maintain the conviction due to concurrent findings by two lower courts.

The sessions court in Kangar found her guilty in 2018 of human trafficking by exploiting Ani Maryati with threats and violence, under Section 13 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

Lim, 48, is said to have committed the offence at a house in Taman Singgahsana in Padang Besar, Perlis, between November 2017 and February 2018.

She was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and ordered to pay Ani RM4,000 in compensation.

The trial court also ordered her to pay another RM3,000 to the government in prosecution costs.

However, she was freed on RM10,000 bail pending an appeal to the High Court.

In April last year, the High Court dismissed her appeal and ordered her to begin her jail term at the Pokok Sena prison in Kedah.

However, another Court of Appeal bench allowed bail in September (last year) pending her appeal, which was heard today.