Wisma Putra help for ex-MAS steward depends on French courts, says source

Wisma Putra will await the French courts’ decision on the sexual assault charges against a former Malaysia Airlines steward before deciding whether or not to help bring him back to Malaysia, a source in the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The source told The Malaysian Insider that there was a possibility that France would drop the charges entirely, so Wisma Putra’s help may not be needed to extradite him from Paris.

“We don’t know whether France will prosecute him. France has a different set of laws which we think will take precedence,” the source said yesterday.

“Of course, we can apply the Tokyo Convention 1963. But we will wait for France to see whether they want to continue with the prosecution or not, then we will decide whether we should bring him back.

“We are doing our best to provide help to (the former steward), but we have to respect both the laws of France and Malaysia,” he said, adding that Wisma Putra was still unsure of the extent of France’s authority over the case.

Malaysia and France are signatories to the Tokyo Convention 1963, 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.

The former MAS employee has been detained in Paris since August, after he was accused of sexually assaulting an Australian passenger during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Paris.

The alleged assault occurred aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH20 on August 7. The steward was detained by French authorities upon arrival in Paris.

On Saturday, the family of the former MAS air steward appealed to Putrajaya to bring him home and have him investigated in Malaysia instead.

“It’s not a simple issue and doesn’t involve Wisma Putra’s decision alone. We have to discuss this matter with other consular agencies involved. Even bringing him back would involve all sorts of issues, such as extradition, bringing the complainant to Malaysia,” said the source.

“That’s why we are waiting for France to decide on the case before we formulate our next step. And if they have a case against him, we are prepared to enter into his defence.”

The source added that they had expected the French court to decide whether to proceed with the ex-steward’s case on October 25, but the decision had been postponed and the authorities had wanted to detain him further.

Meanwhile, the ex-steward’s family’s legal counsel had told a press conference on Saturday that under French law, the former could be detained for up to 10 years without being tried.

“I have asked around and the average detention period is about four years,” their lawyer, Shailender Bhar, had said.

“Just imagine if you were to go for a holiday and get detained for up to 10 years in a foreign country based on a mere accusation.”

But the source said he was unaware of this, adding that if that was the case, the government would come up with ways to prevent the ex-steward from being detained for so long.

“Perhaps it will involve a bilateral arrangement between Malaysia and France. We haven’t come to that point yet.

“Right now, we are giving him all the assistance we can and visiting him regularly. He has appointed his own lawyer there, while in Malaysia, we are following this case closely.

“Wisma Putra is very involved in this since he is a Malaysian detained abroad, but we have to adhere to the local laws as well.”

He added that Wisma Putra was now wading into unchartered territory, as this was the first case in Malaysian history where an air steward was detained in foreign land over such allegations.

“(The ex-steward) has mentioned to our officers in Paris that he would like us to bring him back to Malaysia for further investigation and to face trial in Malaysia, but as far as I’m aware, this is the first case of its kind, so we have to be very careful.”

The ex-steward’s family told a press conference last Saturday that they had flown to Paris last month and met with him three times for about 30 to 45 minutes.

“When we met my father for the first time in two months, we did not speak as we were all overcome with emotion.

“My father looked so sad and depressed, he had also lost about 20kg. The weight loss was due to dietary issues in the prison,” said the ex-steward’s eldest daughter Syaza, 24, as tears rolled down the cheeks.

She suggested that one of the “dietary issues” involved the availability of halal food, as the same food was provided to all detainees.

Syaza also expressed scepticism over the accusations levelled against her father by the passenger, saying it did not sound logical.

“My father is the sole male in our household as he has three daughters. So I do not believe he would behave inappropriately.”

The complainant in this case, Australian Laura Bushney, 26, claimed the steward sexually assaulted her on the Paris-bound flight.

In a television interview, she said she was first assaulted at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before the flight took off.

The second incident took place 3½ hours later while the plane flew over the Bay of Bengal, India, in international airspace.

French news portal FranceTVInfo first reported that the steward had been detained for sexually assaulting a passenger during the flight.

The passenger had apparently expressed her nervousness about flying over the Indian Ocean following the disappearance of flight MH370 and the downing of flight MH17.

The passenger, it was reported, lodged a police report upon reaching Charles de Gaulle airport.

The steward was then questioned and two days later, taken into custody.

Doubts have been cast on Bushney’s allegations, however, after she appeared on an Australian television station to speak about the incident.

She had also recorded part of the alleged assault on her camera phone instead of trying to stop it, which viewers found illogical.

Social media users criticised Bushney after watching the 30-minute interview, calling her story far-fetched and accusing her of “doing it for money”. – November 19, 2014.