Dubai court rules woman who killed her maid must serve 15 years jail


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DUBAI // The Court of Cassation has upheld the 15 year jail sentence for the woman who subjected her maids to such appalling torture that one of them died.

This means Emirati R M, 45, must serve the prison term as the appeal process has been exhausted.

The court also upheld the sentence of three years in prison for her husband, A F, for aiding and abetting his wife in the crime.

R M had imprisoned the two maids, an Ethopian and a Filipina, in a room with sealed windows at her villa in Al Rashidiya for more than a month, where she refused to feed them.

The Filipina maid, E K, 29, said R M beat them with sticks, smashed their heads against the wall until they bled, stripped them naked and forced them to drink cleaning liquids.

The Ethiopian, Khadija Kamel, eventually caught pneumonia and R M refused to give her proper medication.

Her death was also hastened when R M forced her drink pesticide.

“When Khadija died, R M offered me huge amounts of money to keep my mouth shut,” said E K.

The husband helped his wife to prepare the room where the maids were imprisoned by sealing the windows.

The couple were found guilty of the charges at the Criminal Court in January, before the Appeal Court upheld the sentences in April.

newsdesk@thenational.ae

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE

2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.

2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus

2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.

2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.

2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.