DUBAI // A Gulf woman is being held after being arrested on charges of beating her African maid to death.
The woman in her forties called for an ambulance at her home in Al Warqa last month, claiming her maid had injured herself after falling down the stairs.
Upon arrival paramedics found the maid dead, so Dubai Police was informed.
"As the station was close to the house, I was one of the first to arrive at the scene," said Col Yousif Abdulla Al Adeedi, deputy head of Al Rashidiya police station.
"When I saw the body I at once realised she had been beaten as there were apparent signs of physical abuse on her body."
Col Al Adeedi became further sceptical after the woman became very defensive, even though the authorities had not accused her of anything.
"I was very suspicious so I summoned the forensic lab to the scene and called the medical examiner and prosecutor," he said.
After inspection of the body, the medical examiner confirmed the housekeeper was severely beaten on various parts of her body.
"She told me 'this is exactly where she fell, you can even ask the other maid' but her story did not match the other maid's version," Col Al Adeedi said.
The other housekeeper, who is Asian, eventually admitted she and the other maid had been beaten and had been told she would be given Dh50,000 to keep quite.
"The Asian woman was not a Muslim but the lady of the house had wrapped a scarf around her head tightly to hide an injury she had sustained on the side of her face," Col Al Adeedi added.
The medical examiner's report later said that the beatings were the cause of death, resulting from injuries that led to an abscess causing blood toxicity and, eventually, death.
Col Al Adeedi said a friend of the accused, another Gulf woman, has been charged with being an accomplice to the crime after confessing she knew about her friend's actions.
"She said she had been her friend for a long time and was trying to convince her to stop beating the housekeepers," he said.
The African woman was in her thirties.
[ tsubaihi@thenational.ae ]