DUBAI // A 63-year-old woman with a history of abusing domestic helpers has appeared at Dubai Criminal Court accused of torturing and starving an Indonesian maid to death.
Emirati F S faces a charge of confinement and torture of the victim K P, whose age was not included in court documents, by locking her up without food and water.
The court was told that F S fitted locks to all of the doors in her home, installed a fence on top of the garden wall and iron bars on the windows to prevent the maid from running away.
In September last year, Emirati Police Lieutenant A A, 26, said F S’s sister, Z A, called the operations room to report finding the maid’s body at F S’s home in Bur Dubai.
“When we arrived we found the dead body on the floor inside her room. Although there was a bed, she was fully dressed and in her hijab, the room was tidy and clean, the defendant was very nervous,” said A A.
The officer said he grew suspicious after finding a blood trail on the stairs. “We asked F S what happened. She said the maid fell and refused to answer any of our questions, she told us not to ask her anything,” said A A. Police records revealed several complaints had been lodged against F S in the past for abuse of maids and several had absconded, said A A.
A report had been submitted to the Naturalization and Residency Department requesting F S be banned from employing maids, the court was told.
Emirati policeman A T A, 29, said when he searched the villa he found that every door, cabinets, drawer and even the fridge was locked.
“Whenever we wanted to open a drawer or a cabinet, the woman would reach for a big key chain in her pocket. She kept repeating that it was private property and she needed to protect it,” said A T A, adding that when he questioned F S about the fence on top of her villa’s wall, she said she fixed it to prevent the neighbour’s cat from coming into her house.
“Investigations revealed that in a previous case, one maid had absconded by climbing over the wall and another maid, deprived of food, used to get some from people who would put it on top of the wall,” said A T A.
Emirati police captain R A, 29, said traces of old blood stains that had been cleaned up were found all over the house.
A coroner’s report said starvation was the main cause of death and that the bruises found on the victim’s body contributed to K P’s death.
“She starved to death and she was subjected to severe beating, the examination showed that she was apparently given some food to prevent her death but since the condition was severe, the attempt failed to save her life,” said the Emirati Coroner K A.
F S denied the charges against her. “It did not happen,” she told the judge.
The next hearing will be on March 17.
salamir@thenational.ae
