Woman jailed for 15 years for starving and beating her maid to death

The maid , along with another co-worker who testified in court, was locked up, starved, beaten and denied medical aid even though she had developed pneumonia.

DUBAI // A woman has been jailed for 15 years for torturing and starving two maids, causing one of them to die.

Emirati R M, 45, a customer service officer, was also sentenced to another month for refusing to get medical help for Ethiopian maid, Khadija Kamel, who had pneumonia.

Her husband, Emirati A F, was jailed for three years for aiding and abetting his wife.

Prosecutors said the wife kept the maids locked up for two months in a room at her villa in Al Rashidiya, where they were tortured and refused food.

The other maid, Filipina E K, 29, testified that the wife beat them with sticks and banged their heads against the wall until they bled.

She said at times they were so hungry they were forced to search through dustbins for food.

The Filipina said she was punished by being made to drink cleaning products.

“She had me drink Clorox and Dettol because she did not like how I cleaned the bathroom,” the maid said.

Once, both maids were taken to the bathroom, where the wife stripped them of their clothes, took pictures of them naked and then threatened them with the images.

The wife claimed she could have them jailed as her husband worked in the courts.

The Filipina also said they were never allowed to talk to their families. “We were often not allowed to talk to each other,” she said.

Prosecutors said that two months before Kamel died, the husband prepared a room for the maids at the top of the villa, with iron bars across the windows.

There, the maids were starved for up to five days at a time. On another occasion, the wife gave one of the maids food and made the other one watch her eat.

The Emirati couple denied all charges when they appeared in court last June.

“No, I am not guilty,” the husband said.

His wife denied knowing anything about their injuries.

“I swear to God I didn’t touch them,” she said.

Medical records said both maids developed blood poisoning as a result of the abuse and malnourishment.

Kamel became so weak she could no longer move. Her death was hastened because she was forced to drink pesticide by the wife.

She weighed only 38 kilograms when she died.

“Four days before her death, [Kamel] was extremely sick and wasn’t able to walk or even go to bathroom,” the Filipina said.

“I begged R M to take her to hospital but she refused. When she died, R M offered me huge amounts of money to keep my mouth shut.”