DUBAI // A maid who wrapped up her newborn son in a cloth and repeatedly hit him, until he stopped moving, before dropping the child’s body into a bin has been sentenced to life in jail.
Indonesian S A, 31, was convicted of premeditated murder by Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday. She denied a murder charge in court last November and said she only wrapped the boy in a cloth and threw him into the bin.
“I did not want the child, but I didn’t kill him,” S A told judges.
The maid was also charged with having consensual sex out of wedlock, to which she confessed and was sentenced to an additional year in jail.
Prosecutors said S A gave birth in a bathroom at her sponsor’s house on February 27 last year then killed her child immediately after.
Indian lorry driver R J, 36, and two colleagues found the baby’s body.
“It was nearly 11.30pm when my colleague, T L, heard moaning coming from a bin in Al Barsha 3 where we were emptying bins for a private company,” said R J, adding that his colleague initially thought the noise was a cat.
However, when he opened a plastic bag he found the child inside wrapped in a cloth.
“T L screamed and called me and our colleague and showed us the baby. We called the police right away,” said R J.
Policeman A A, 31, told prosecutors the child was taken to Latifa Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
“Our investigations lead to the maid and when we questioned her she confessed to getting pregnant from a man she met a year ago,” said A A.
The officer said S A and her boyfriend would meet in his residence in Al Satwa. “But when she got pregnant he stopped taking her calls and disappeared,” said the officer.
The maid’s employers did not notice she was pregnant.
Prosecutors said S A confessed during questioning that the baby was born alive but she hit the child until he stopped crying and moving then threw the body into a bin believing he was dead.
A life sentence carries a minimum of 25 years in jail. S A will be deported after serving her jail term.
The sentence can be appealed within 15 days.
salamir@thenational.ae
