Maid jailed for killing her newborn baby

An Ethiopian housemaid is sentenced to three years in prison for strangling her newborn child and burying the body in her employer's garden.

ABU DHABI // An Ethiopian housemaid has been sentenced to three years in prison for strangling her newborn child in December last year and burying the body in her employer's garden. The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court also ordered the maid, identified only as FSK, aged 19, to be deported after completing her sentence. The case arose after her employer's wife noticed bloodstains in the maid's room. She asked her where the blood had come from and whether or not she was pregnant. The 19-year-old housemaid denied being pregnant, but the employer's wife was suspicious and informed her husband. FSK was taken to a medical centre in Abu Dhabi which confirmed that she had been pregnant.

The employer then handed FSK over to the agency that had supplied her. Further medical exams conducted at Saqr Hospital in Ras al Khaimah confirmed that the maid had delivered a full-term baby and she was asked what had happened to the child. This prompted a search for the baby inside the employer's house. The housewife found a pile of sand in their backyard, and told police, who discovered the baby buried under the sand.

Forensic tests of the corpse revealed that the baby, a boy, had been full-term and alive when he was strangled with a piece of cloth and buried. FSK was charged with murder and attempting to conceal evidence, and referred to the Criminal Court for trial in February. It issued the verdict in early March. [e-mail]