BY V. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
A former Malaysia Airlines flight steward, who was held in a Paris detention centre for almost five months for alleged sexual assault on a passenger, has been freed but placed under house arrest pending completion of an investigation by French authorities, his family’s lawyer said.
Counsel Shailender Bhar said the 57-year-old steward, who was detained last August, was freed three weeks ago although investigations were ongoing.
“I have spoken to him over the phone and the family members have visited him. However, we are unsure when the investigation will be completed,” Shailender told The Malaysian Insider.
The lawyer said the steward was staying with a local resident approved by a French court. He said the steward’s travel documents had been returned to him but he was not allowed to leave the country, and was told to report to the nearest police station once a week.
Shailender said the investigation into the passenger’s claims could take between one and two more years according to the procedures of the French police, and this was cause for concern for the family.
“The family will have incur costs like paying the fee for a local French lawyer which could be in the region of RM200,000 at least.”
Shailender said the family had also decided to engage a new counsel to impress upon the judge that the steward must return home to be investigated by Malaysian police and possibly face a charge if there was sufficient evidence.
“We need to enlighten the judge about the Tokyo Convention to stop this prolonged detention,'” he said, adding the steward should be freed if there was no case to answer.
Malaysia and France are signatories to the convention, which is a multilateral treaty on offences and certain other acts committed on board an aircraft.
Article 3 states that the state of registration of the aircraft is competent to exercise jurisdiction over offences and acts committed on board, which means that France has no jurisdiction to investigate the steward, Shailender said.
The lawyer said the family and the National Union of Flight Attendants (Nufam) had written to Wisma Putra to intervene and bring back the steward but to no avail.
“We wanted government-to-government talks to resolve the issue but that has not happened. I suppose we have to fight it on our own now.”
Shailender said the French police have no jurisdiction to investigate the steward as the alleged crime did not take place in France or its airspace.
“As no criminal offence took place under French jurisdiction, he should not be investigated there.”
The alleged assault occurred aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH20 last August 5 and the steward was detained by French authorities upon arrival in Paris.
Passenger Laura Bushney claimed that the steward sexually assaulted her twice during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris. She lodged a police report upon reaching Charles de Gaulle airport.
In November, MAS confirmed that it had sacked the flight steward, despite the fact that he had not been charged or tried for the alleged incident.
The union has since referred the matter to the Industrial Relations Department and is seeking the steward’s reinstatement to his former position. – January 3, 2015.
– See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ex-mas-steward-in-paris-under-house-arrest-as-sexual-assault-probe-drags-on#sthash.S4LiAsuO.dpuf
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ex-mas-steward-in-paris-under-house-arrest-as-sexual-assault-probe-drags-on