Kuala Lumpur - A Malaysian court on Thursday sentenced a housewife to 18 years in prison for burning her Indonesian maid with an iron and scalding her with hot water.

Sessions court Judge Akhtar Tahir found Yim Pek Ha, 40, guilty of abusing her former maid Nirmala Bonat by inflicting injury on three occasions in 2004.

Yim, a former flight attendant who has been free on bail since being charged in 2004, was ordered to serve her sentence beginning Thursday.

The case had gained local and international attention as one of the country's worse incidents of maid abuse.

Nirmala, who has since returned to Indonesia, had claimed to have been beaten and burned for making mistakes in the course of working for Yim.

She had also claimed that on one occasion, Yim used a hot iron and pressed it against her breasts after complaining that the clothes were not well ironed.

During the course of the court hearing, Yim's lawyers had argued that Nirmala's injuries were self-inflicted, arguing that the young Indonesian suffered mental problems.

However, Akhtar said the facts of the case did not indicate that the injuries were self-inflicted.

The largest number of maids in Malaysia are Indonesians, followed by Filipinos.

Domestic newspapers often carry reports of physical abuse by employers of their Indonesian maids, who are paid a monthly wage of 500 ringgit (152 dollars) and above. (dpa)