Mother in UAE jailed for death of 7 children in house fire

Fujairah - The mother locked up her children in their room and they couldn't escape from the heavy smoke and toxic gas from the fire.

The Fujairah Court of Appeal has found a mother responsible for the death of her seven children, and ordered her to serve six months in jail. She has also been ordered to pay blood money of Dh1.4 million.
The mother earlier stood trial at the Dibba Al Fujairah Court on the charges of manslaughter as she locked up her four girls and three boys, aged between 5 and 15, who suffocated to death in a fire that broke out in their house two years back.
As per the indictment sheet, the mother locked up her children in their room and they couldn't escape from the heavy smoke and toxic gas from the fire.
The court records showed that the victims were sleeping in their room when the blaze broke out at around 4.50am.
The children, identified as twins Sara and Sumaia (5), Ali (9), Sheikha (10), Ahmad (11), Khalifa (13) and Shooq (15), tried to run out of the burning house but in vain.
On being alerted, firefighters had rushed to the scene and tried hard to rescue the kids, but it was too late.
The fire, which started in an air-conditioner in the children's room because of a short circuit, spread to the rest of the house, and sparked a nationwide campaign to install smoke detectors in all houses.
The children's father had passed away a year before the tragedy and their mother was raising them on her own at the villa in the Rol Dhadna village.
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

• Fujairah