KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN labour activist who endured a marathon 13-year trial over her allegations of abuse against migrant workers was finally acquitted on Monday, her lawyer said.

Irene Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, which is an advocate for foreign labourers in Malaysia, was arrested in 1996 for publishing a report on the abuse of illegal workers awaiting deportation.

In a case condemned by international human rights groups, she was found guilty in 2003 after a seven-year trial and sentenced to one year in jail. She appealed the decision but the hearings were postponed numerous times.

On one occasion, 1,700 pages of trial documents including witness statements went missing, and computer viruses wiped out other notes.

'Irene has finally won her appeal and the prison sentence has been set aside,' her lawyer M. Puravalen told AFP. 'That means she is now free.' Ms Fernandez said she felt vindicated by the decision.

'It has been a long struggle and I am very happy to be free after the court set aside the imprisonment,' she told AFP.

'However I fully intend to continue the struggle to defend people, especially those who are marginalised, illegal workers and those who are held in detention to prevent abuse and torture,' she said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) had called for the case to be dropped, saying that Malaysia's image would suffer if it continued to 'prosecute people, especially respected voices, for peaceful expression.' 'Irene Fernandez and her organisation documented the government's sadistic and humiliating treatment of migrants,' HRW's Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement.

'These include random beatings in the middle of the night, HIV/AIDS detainees sleeping on a roofless porch, rain or shine, filth, food and water shortages, and totally inadequate medical care,' he said.

Malaysia is one of the biggest importers of foreign labour in Asia.

Migrant workers, both legal and illegal, number around 2.6 million of the 10.5 million workforce, and are the mainstay of the manufacturing, construction and agricultural industries. -- AFP

Is this article useful to you?