The Journey of the Mongolian Women’s Fight for Justice

The authors are lawyers who witnessed first-hand the arduous journey that their clients – the two Mongolian women who were stopped at the roadblock last April -  experienced in their fight for justice and return home. This article discusses some of the legal and policy issues that cropped up during their clients’ journey.

Last year, the story of two Mongolian nationals being stopped by at a police roadblock in Petaling Jaya, brought to a hotel nearby a police station and raped, shook the nation. At the time, roadblocks were a facet of ordinary life. And so, the story sent chills down the collective Malaysian consciousness.

Today, as the restrictions on movement have increasingly loosened, the public memory of this story is beginning to fade. Regardless of how topical it is, the truth of how difficult it is for vulnerable groups of individuals to obtain justice, is a perennial dilemma.

After being rescued by the police, reeling from being victims of rape, our clients found themselves encountering their first challenge in the justice system – facing the overstay issue at the time.

The Overstay Issue

When the Movement Control Order was first instituted, many countries began to adopt restrictive travel policies. This included Mongolia (with over 3 million individuals) decided to halt all commercial flights from entering the country, and arranged to repatriate Mongolian citizens abroad. However, due to limited resources, not all Mongolians staying in Malaysia (whether for business or pleasure) were able to leave the country before their travel passes expired.

As a result, numerous Mongolian citizens found themselves stranded in Malaysia with nowhere to turn to, but themselves. They formed communities to cope with living in Malaysia. This comforted many people, particularly tourists who could not understand the local languages, including English.

Our clients were two of those such Mongolian citizens, who were not able to leave the country due to Mongolia’s closed borders, and as such appeared to have ‘overstayed’. Before long, they found themselves in a lock-up where they stayed for several nights.

There are some news reports that state that the women were placed in a shelter, not a lock-up centre. While such reports were not incorrect at the time they were made, it avoids the truth that the women had in fact spent time in a lock-up before the Petaling Jaya Magistrates’ Court granted an interim protection order to place them in a gazetted shelter. It is worth noting that their time in the lock-up was in the days after having experienced traumatic events.

Limited resources for victims

Throughout the entire process of advising and acting in the best interests of the two women, our firm coordinated between a number of groups. Aside from the police, prosecution and government-appointed Victim Assistance Specialists (VAS), we coordinated efforts with the Mongolian Consulate (and by extension, the Mongolian Embassy in Thailand), private translators, private mental health experts and non-governmental organizations who were interested in the women’s welfare. All these parties were necessary to deal with various challenges: to overcome the language barrier, to monitor and manage their mental health, to update the Mongolian Embassy in Thailand on the status of the case.

At all times, we were cognizant that, sans this level of concerted effort, our clients would have had to accept the minimal assistance that the justice system would have to offer, depending on the availability of police, the prosecution and VAS, all of which are essential members to the process but may themselves be constrained by bureaucracy or lack of recourse.

On a positive note, we commend the introduction of VAS in circumstances involving potentially trafficked persons. This includes counsellors who may tag along with the appointed VAS. The VAS and counsellor who was assigned to this case were sensitive and experienced, and helped tremendously in the healing process. We hope that lawmakers and policy makers see the potential benefit in expanding the availability of VAS to other sexual violence-related cases.

Can’t pay costs, can’t sue?

Around May 2020, both victims launched suits against their perpetrator. Eventually, the perpetrator filed security for costs applications in both suits, which is a type of application ordinarily brought against a person who is believe to be unable to pay costs in the event they lose the entire matter.

In mid-December 2020, in one of the victims’ matters, the High Court of Kuala Lumpur allowed the perpetrator’s security for costs application, and ordered that RM 70,000 be paid to the lawyers of the perpetrator to be kept until the matter is completed. The said victim was unable to make payment due to difficulties during COVID-19 times, and as a result the High Court struck out the civil action against the said victim.

Aggrieved by the High Court’s decision which struck off the genuine claim, our firm kickstarted a fundraising campaign called “Help Mongolian Rape Victim Get Justice in Malaysia”, on local crowdfunding platform PitchIN. From the moment the campaign went live, we witnessed the nation coming together in the name of justice with former and existing clients and the public pouring in their donations and unwavering support towards the campaign.

Within two weeks from the launch of the campaign, we managed to raise a total sum RM46,500. By the end of the campaign, we raised RM57,847, which will go towards any future security for cost application that may arise with the re-filing of the case. 

A long journey ahead

Both us and our client are not only grateful for the donations from the above campaign, but also the encouraging words of support from members of the public, including our clients. We believe that the road ahead is a long and arduous one.

We hope that this article is educational on how fortunate many of us are, to be safe in our own home country during tumultuous times and to have support structures of our own (i.e. colleagues, friends and family).

Our clients still have a long journey ahead and we hope that they will be given an opportunity to a fair and reasonable trial.