DUBAI // A housewife has been sentenced to two years in jail for assaulting her maid with an iron bar and causing permanent disability to her back, hands and legs.
Indian ND, 32, came to the country last year after she was hired by 34-year-old Emirati QA through a labour company in Dubai.
The victim told prosecutors she worked in a two-bedroom flat where QA lived with her husband, five children and her mother.
“I didn’t get paid since my arrival,” said ND. She told Dubai Criminal Court the assaults started in Ramadan this year and continued until she so badly injured she fainted and fell from the flat’s first floor balcony.
ND recalled being beaten repeatedly with a metal bar all over her body and head. “I couldn’t call anyone, I had no phone,” said the victim, who was locked on the balcony for two days.
Emirati police lieutenant FA, 26, testified that at nearly 8pm on July 24 last year QA called police to report that her maid had fallen from the balcony.
“An ambulance headed to the location and took the woman to Rashid Hospital where we learnt the maid had been subjected to a constant and brutal assault,” said FA.
He said officers opened an investigation. “We went to the flat and checked the balcony where we found food remains, a mattress, the maid’s clothes and her faeces,” said the officer, who added that when QA was questioned about the maid’s injuries, she became tense and gave contradicting information before finally telling them the truth.
“She confessed she starting the beating because ND stopped doing work around the house and demanded to return to her country,” said the officer.
He added that QA told police ND had gone on a hunger strike and moved to the balcony.
Police also found the metal bar QA used to assault the maid, said the officer.
A forensic report found that ND suffered multiple fractures in both hands, bruises on different parts of her body, wounds to the abdomen, chest and back as well as swelling in the hands and wrists.
After spending two months in hospital, ND still suffers from stiffness in the fingers of both hands and pain in her lower back and walks with a limp. The report stated that ND also suffers from a partial restriction in the movement of her right shoulder and a full restriction in the movement of both wrists.
ND’s disability was estimated to be at 60 per cent. QA did not appear in court to enter a plea and was sentenced in absentia. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.
salamir@thenational.ae