Witnesses testify they heard screams from house where maid was allegedly killed

ABU DHABI // Shouts and screams were heard for more than a year from the house of a couple accused of killing their housemaid, neighbours told the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court on Wednesday.

The couple also had bad experiences with maids and were frequently replacing them. The victim, witnesses said, was imprisoned inside their home for the two months she worked for them.

M A and his wife, R, both Palestinian, are accused of killing their maid, undressing her, pouring toxic substances on her body in the bathroom and carrying the body in an iron box and disposing of her belongings.

The police witness who testified on Wednesday said R had already confessed that she and her husband beat the maid with their hands and wooden objects.

“I would like to note though that the incident occurred at 5am and not 5pm as they claimed,” he said, “and the iron box which R claimed her husband put the victim in and carried to the car is impossible for one person to carry alone. We examined it.

“M A told us where to find the victim’s clothes and mobile phone, but they were already collected by janitors, so we were only able to track the phone.”

R argued that she had never confessed to beating the victim, and that because she was recovering from a Caesarean birth she was not physically able to beat anyone. She said she was locked in a bedroom with her children when her husband attacked the maid.

But as she began to retell the story from the beginning she contradicted herself and said: “The incident started at 5pm, when I heard a bang from the maid’s personal bathroom after she slipped from the soap on the floor.

“I tried to pull her up but she was too heavy and I was worried the wound would get torn. So I grabbed a plastic cane from my kids’ toys and tried to pull her with it in vain.”

R said she called her husband and asked for assistance. He arrived 15 minutes later and immediately assumed the maid was pretending, and hit her on the legs.

“I fought with him and left the house with my children,” R said.

When she returned two hours later she found the apartment floor all soapy and slippery and found the victim dead in the bathroom.

“My husband was standing behind me, he threatened me and took my phone away and ordered me to pack our bags to move to a hotel.”

M A denied his wife’s version and said he arrived to find the maid dead. He said he had slapped her only once before.

Their neighbour W said for that for more than a year they had heard R yelling at others.

“She was troublesome and eventually all neighbours stopped talking to her,” the neighbour said.

About four days before they heard about the murder, W said they had heard outrageous screams from the couple’s house and were unable to sleep.

A second neighbour said on the day of the incident he woke up early to drop his son at the airport, and while he was in the bathroom he heard M A command someone to “kneel”.

When the neighbour returned from the airport he found the door to the couple’s house open and a strong smell of detergent.

He said that a maid the couple had employed before once fled to the upstairs’ neighbours and they called the police.

The case was adjourned until October 15 for the defence to respond to the witnesses’ statements.