Malaysian lawyer heads to Paris to secure return of MAS steward in alleged sexual assault

A screengrab of Laura Bushney when she appeared in an interview on Australia's Channel 7. – September 6, 2014.

French police have no jurisdiction to investigate a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) steward over a sexual assault complaint by a passenger as the alleged crime did not take place in France or its air space, a Malaysian lawyer said.

Shailender Bhar, who leaves for Paris early next week, said the 57-year-old employee should instead be repatriated to Malaysia for investigation.

"As there is no criminal offence that has taken place under French jurisdiction, he should not be investigated there," he told The Malaysian Insider.

Shailender was approached for help by family members of the suspect who has been held by French police for investigation since August 5. He said the French police were investigating the case as rape.

"We will be meeting the state prosecutor who will be back to work after the summer vacation," the lawyer said.

Shailender is to request that the suspect be freed on bail pending the possibility of filing a challenge that the French police have no authority to investigate and frame charges.

The French authorities have assigned a lawyer to the suspect but Shailender's role is to give advice on the Malaysian perspective of the law.

Shailender said from information gathered so far, the complainant, Australian Laura Bushney, 26, claimed that the first incident had occurred on the Paris-bound plane at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before the flight took off.

The second incident took place three-and-a-half hours later while the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH20 flew over the Bay of Bengal, India, in international air space.

"No offence took place in France or in its air space," Shailender added.

French news portal FranceTVInfo first reported that the crew member had been detained for sexually assaulting a passenger during the flight.

The passenger had apparently expressed her nervousness about flying over the Indian Ocean following the disappearance of flight MH370 in March and the downing of flight MH17 in July in Ukraine.

The passenger, it was reported, lodged a police report upon reaching the Charles de Gaulle airport on August 5.

The MAS flight attendant was then questioned and, two days later, taken into custody.

Doubts have been cast on Bushney’s allegations, however, after she appeared on an Australian television station to speak about the incident. She had also recorded part of the alleged assault on her camera phone instead of trying to stop it, which viewers found illogical.

Social media users criticised Bushney after watching the 30-minute interview, calling her story far-fetched and accusing her of “doing it for money”.

Some questioned how she had managed to record the incident if she was indeed as scared as she had claimed. Others also took issue with “compromising” photos of her on her Instagram account, but those posts have since been deleted. Some, though, said that as the victim, she should not be blamed.

Bushney had said in the programme that the steward had "begged me not to report the incident, while we were still in the air, as he had a wife and a child".

She said the steward took advantage of her fears about flying on MAS following the MH370 and MH17 incidents by sitting next to her and then eventually touching her on her legs and private parts.

- TMI