Juminem, 20 and Siti Aminah, 17, were spared from the gallows after Justice Choo Han Teck ruled they were guilty of culpable homicide and not murder as charged by public prosecutors.

The death penalty is mandatory in Singapore for murder.

Juminem, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, was jailed for life while Aminah received a 10-year sentence.

The judge said both maids were suffering from depression when they suffocated 47-year-old Esther Ang with a pillow and stomped on her stomach in her apartment last year.

There are more than 140,000 domestic workers in Singapore, mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and stories of employers abusing them and retaliatory acts by the domestic workers frequently make headlines.

Singapore authorities have taken a hard line against maid abusers.

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