A mother who subjected her baby to terrible abuse that eventually caused his death had her jailed term more than doubled by an appeal court on Sunday.
The Emirati, 33, stamped on the stomach of her 14-month-old son - the final act in a series of violent assaults that are believed to have occurred over months.
She was originally sentenced to three years in jail earlier this year after being convicted of causing his death. On Sunday Dubai Court of Appeal increased that to seven years.
The mother denied a murder charge during the original criminal trial and the appeal.
Her lawyer claimed the child suffered suffered a number of health problems and was prescribed a large amount of medication that, it was claimed, caused his health to deteriorate. He died shortly after the final incident on July 16, 2016 at the woman’s home in Al Qusais, near Dubai International Airport.
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[ Baby dies after mother stamps on boy's stomach, Dubai court told ]
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“My client was caring for her son during all of the time he was ill. And the Court of First Instance based its conviction on evidence that does not stand,” said Emirati lawyer Fahad Ahmed bin Tamim, in a previous hearing.
The child had been in and out of hospital for some time, with unexplained injuries.
He claimed that the skull fracture the child suffered was not caused by the mother but may have been inflicted at the hospital where child was admitted a short time before his death.
“At nearly midnight, the hospital calls the child’s parents and ask them to urgently take the child home, they gave excuses that the insurance doesn’t cover the stay, then a couple of days later, the parents discovered the head injury. Maybe he fell at the hospital and they discharged him in a hurry to cover it up,” the lawyer claimed.
The mother took her child to a private hospital for treatment, where he later died. Doctors then alerted police.
But judges did not accept that defence on Sunday.
At an earlier hearing, an Egyptian doctor working at the hospital said the baby had been treated for a number of serious injuries including brain haemorrhage, diarrhoea, then a fractured thigh bone and a fractured skull. He was also vomiting.
The mother’s maid and sister both testified against her, saying she treated the child 'mercilessly', shoving spoons into his mouth, tying him up and throwing him naked on the bathroom floor at bath time. The sister said that she discovered her nephew’s bruises were being covered with makeup.
A medical report found that the child died because of internal bleeding in the abdomen caused by violent pressure, which damaged his intestines.
The maid, a 46-year-old Indonesian woman, told prosecutors that she saw the mother pressing on the child’s stomach before his death.
The mother was present as her jail term was doubled. The sentence can be appealed at the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial court in the emirate.
