by Adeola Balogun

A Malaysian couple has been convicted and sentenced to death after being found guilty of causing the death of their maid.

Fong Kong Meng, 58 and his wife Teoh Ching Yen, 56 were said to have starved 26-year-old Isti Komariyah to death.

Isti was said to have weighed 46kg before she started working with the couple but at the time of her death she was a mere 26kg.

The Guardian reports:

Judge Noor Azian Shaari said the couple consistently withheld food from the woman during the three years she worked for them.

“She was 26 and weighed barely 26kg when she was taken to the University Malaya Medical Centre with bruises and scratch marks on her back, arms and forehead,” the Star newspaper reported.

Isti was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. She had weighed 46kg (101lbs) when she first started working for the couple.

The court and the couple’s lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

Malaysia relies on an estimated 2 million Indonesians who toil in plantation, construction, factory and domestic work – both legally and illegally.

Allegations of abuse against foreign labourers have included overwork, beatings, sexual abuse and torture.

A Cambodian maid was starved to death in 2012 by her employers, for which they received a 24-year jail sentence. Cambodia had stopped sending maids a year earlier over other abuses, but poor Indonesian women have continued to arrive.

Malaysia has taken steps to improve the welfare of domestic workers, including requiring them to have at least one day off a week and nearly doubling minimum monthly salaries to 700 ringgit (£125). But activists say enforcement is difficult.

The Indonesian embassy estimates 400,000 women work in Malaysia as maids – about half illegally. Indonesian workers account for roughly half of all foreign labourers.