Mother 'used underwear to strangle baby'

Mother denies murder, saying she was using the underwear to clean the blood off the baby's neck.

JF, a Filipina, denied intentionally killing the boy, telling the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court that she passed out after giving birth last March. She said she was using the underwear to clean the blood off the baby's neck and it was still in her hand when she passed out.

However, Chief Justic Sayed Abdul Baseer, head of the court, said that according to the forensics report the underwear was tied around the baby's neck, which required some effort.

He then asked the woman whether the boy was born dead or alive, but she said she did not know.

Investigators found the baby inside a plastic bag in the woman's closet.

"I put him there so I could take him with me to the Philippines to show him to his father," said the woman.

Police said the woman had confessed that the baby was the result of a sexual relationship outside marriage, yet in court she insisted she was made pregnant by her husband in the Philippines. She said she was in the country during July last year.

The case was adjourned until May 22 while a lawyer is appointed for the woman.

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