DUBAI // A 35-year-old woman who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for beating her maid to death lost her appeal on Tuesday.
The Emirati defendant, who lives in Al Qusais, denied a charge of physical assault that led to death in the criminal and appeal courts but was found guilty of attacking the maid, who holds a Comoros Islands passport, with an electric cable and a wooden stick.
She had been seeking a reduced jail term.
When she appeared at the criminal court she begged the judge for bail, saying that her children are small and have no one to care for them.
Her lawyer argued that his client did not mean to kill the maid, whose age was not given, and that she was trying to reach a settlement with the deceased’s family.
The defendant regularly assaulted the maid in the months leading up to her death on December 28, 2015.
The victim’s multiple injuries were neglected and she did not receive medical treatment.
A fellow maid, a 19-year-old also with a Comoros Islands passport, said she started working for the defendant in December, shortly before the victim died, and that she witnessed the beatings.
“Sometimes she would punch her or kick her,” said the witness, who was sent to work at the defendant’s sister’s house, where she too was beaten.
She asked to be taken back by the defendant five days later and, on her return, she again saw her colleague being beaten, pulled by the hair and pushed violently.
The witness was later again sent to work at the sister’s home but she remained in contact with the deceased.
“We talked over the phone and she used to tell me horrible details but, when the defendant found out we were talking, there was no contact. Then I learnt that my colleague had died,” the maid said.
An Egyptian pharmacist who lived next door to the defendant said he often heard screams.
“One day I saw the maid standing at the main entrance of the building looking desperate and very sad but I did not ask her what was wrong,” he said.
A 31-year-old building manager from Egypt told the court he received several complaints from tenants about noise coming from the defendant’s apartment. “The maid’s screams for help were often heard,” he said.
A forensic report showed that the victim had also suffered burns and her body had human bite marks and several other injuries that became infected and eventually caused her death because she received no treatment.
salamir@thenational.ae