Woman who tortured UAE maid gets 3 years in jail

The woman's daughter testified during police investigations her mother tortured the Ethiopian maid daily by pouring boiling water on her and beating her with the electrical cord from a hair dryer.

ABU DHABI // A woman who tortured her maid to death was jailed for three years yesterday for premeditated murder.

Prosecutors had called for the death penalty for A?S, an Emirati, who abused the Ethiopian maid every day by pouring boiling water on her, beating her with the electrical cord from a hairdryer and putting pepper in her eyes. She lacked “any mercy or humanitarian feeling”, the Criminal Court was told.

The attacks started when the maid moved into the family’s home during Ramadan last year. She died on September 4, 2012.

The woman had denied intentionally killing her maid, and told the court she was angry.

Psychiatric tests ordered by the court found she was both sane and responsible for her actions.

Her lawyer, Abdullah Al Khazraji, argued at a previous hearing that the report took into account only his client’s behaviour after she suffered a seizure in prison on March 4, 2013.

He said it did not take into account her behaviour before that date.

The victim’s family have waived their right to have the woman sentenced to death, and have instead asked for blood money of Dh200,000.