A wife, suspected of partially blinding a woman who she believed to be her husband’s mistress by pouring poisonous fluids over her head, seemed overcome with anguish during her inaugural hearing at Denpasar District Court yesterday.
Twenty-four year old I Gusti Agung Diah Dwi Wirahayu (Diah) was even pictured by some local media dropping to her knees in tears, hugging, and apologizing profusely to the victim, Ni Luh Mita Martiyasari (Mita), also 24.
According to local reports, the incident in question occurred on December 8 in front of the supermarket where the husband, Kadek Agus Sandiawan (Agus) 27, had worked. Agus was due to finish his shift at 10pm while his wife, suspicious that he was playing around, waited in secret for him to emerge from the store on Jl. Kebo Iwa in Denpasar.
But when Diah saw Mita arrive at the supermarket using a motorbike and a helmet that Agus often took home, the situation quickly escalated. After taking some kind of chemical liquid spray from the AC shop where she was hiding, she made her way towards Mita.
Approaching her from behind, Diah allegedly grabbed Mita’s hair and yanked it backwards before pouring the liquid over her head. Due to the injuries sustained that day, the victim is now blind in one eye and has blurred vision in the other.
In her statement at the trial, Mita said that the incident was motivated by Diah’s apparently unfounded jealousy.
“The defendant was jealous of me. I knew the defendant’s husband before they married,” she said, as quoted in Tribun Bali. “My intention was only to help, to lend a motorbike to the defendant’s husband. I often lend my motorcycle to him,” she continued.
Despite losing sight in one eye, Mita told the panel of judges that she could forgive her attacker.
“I have forgiven, and have not demanded anything,” she said before the panel of judges.
For her actions, Diah could face up to five years in prison. The trial continues on Thurs, March 14.
