Dubai Court sentences mother to life in jail for torturing and killing her young daughter

Girl was found dead in bath

A woman has been jailed for life in Dubai for killing her daughter. AFP

Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced a mother to life in jail for torturing and killing her young daughter.

According to court records, the Russian mother called an ambulance to her home in The Villa area of Dubai on June 22 last year, claiming her daughter had drowned in the bath. Her husband was away in Russia on the day of the incident.

The age of the child was not disclosed.

But the paramedic who attended alerted Dubai Police after noticing bruises and signs of burns on the child’s body.

The mother told the officers that a man she employed committed the crime before fleeing.

The Russian man, 24, left the country on the day of the crime. He was arrested in Tashkent airport with the help of Interpol and returned to the UAE for questioning.

He denied killing the girl and said he had been in Dubai on a visit visa to work for the family at their house.

“I used to help the family in the house and drop the victim and her brother at school and brought them back to the house,” he said in official records.

He claimed the mother tortured the girl.

He said on the night of the crime, the mother locked the girl in her room and gave the bedroom key to him and asked him to wake up the girl and take her to school in the morning.

“The girl wasn’t in her bed. I found her lying in the bathtub and water pouring on her face. I thought she was dead and went to alert the mother,” he said.

“I was shocked by the cold reaction of the mother.”

He said he fled because he was afraid that the mother would accuse him of killing the girl.

Officers questioned the mother and she admitted to assaulting her daughter and leaving her in the bathtub.

She was sentenced to life in jail, followed by deportation.

The Russian man was sentenced to one month in jail, followed by deportation, for failing to alert the police about the crime.

The case has been referred to the Dubai Court of Appeal.