By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
An American woman held in an Indonesian prison took her newborn daughter to hospital Friday after failing to appear in court this week.
The trial of Heather Lois Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, for the murder of the woman’s mother was adjourned Wednesday after they could not attend a session at the Denpasar District Court due to their baby’s illness. Mack gave birth March 17 while in custody.
Three officers from Bali’s Kerobokan prison accompanied Mack on Friday to the Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar, where a nurse told the BaliPost website, “the health of [the mother] and baby was checked.”
On Wednesday, a doctor at Kerobokan had recommended that the baby be taken to a hospital as she was suffering from jaundice.
While the couple’s lawyers attended the hearing, the prosecution’s sentence demand could not be read without the defendants’ presence. The trial has been adjourned until March 31.
Mack and Schaefer are standing trial over the murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack, 62, whose badly beaten body was found in a suitcase in the boot of a taxi outside a hotel in August last year.
Mack and Schaefer, both from Chicago, are being tried separately on charges of premeditated murder and could face execution by firing squad if convicted.
Earlier this month, Mack had told the court that her boyfriend had killed von Wiese-Mack with a metal bowl out of anger after she threatened to kill their unborn child. She said she had not wished for the death of her mother.
According to the prosecution, the couple plotted to murder von Wiese-Mack because she did not approve of their relationship and Mack had suggested Schaefer should hire someone to kill her mother.
