Emirati couple cleared of housemaid torturing charges

Abu Dhabi - There wasn't enough evidence to prove the torture of the Asian maid.

A couple that was accused of beating up their housemaid with sticks and torturing her has been cleared of the charges.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance acquitted the Emirati couple because there wasn't enough evidence to prove they assaulted and tortured the Asian woman.
The court found out through evidence presented by the couple's lawyer that the maid, who had absconded from the Emirati family, had been beaten up and tortured by a gang where she was staying after running away from her bosses. The woman had allegedly refused to work for the gang because she got a better job through friends which annoyed them. The Asian gang allegedly beat up the woman with sticks and locked her up in their house.

The Public Prosecution had charged the couple after the Asian maid complained they hit her with a sharp object and also deprived her freedom, locking her up in their house.

The Emirati couple had denied the charges of assault and torture. Their lawyer Abir Dahmani had argued said that there was a contradiction between the maid's statements and the forensic report issued by the criminal laboratory about the attacks.
According to the lawyer, the maid said she was hit by a shoe in her face and other body parts by her female employer whereas the forensic report stated that the maid suffered bruises as a result from beatings using a stick and sharp objects.
The lawyer also said attacks had occurred after the maid had run away from her sponsor's home.
Dahman said the maid was found on 13 February in Ajman after she had just sustained moderate wounds resulting from the beatings. "My clients had nothing to do with these attacks because the maid had already absconded from their home two months earlier," she earlier told court. "The husband had even filed a runaway case against their maid to authorities before she was assaulted."
On the claim that the maid hadn't received salary from her bosses for many months, the lawyer presented money transfer receipts from her clients showing that the maid had remitted more than Dh10,000 to her mother back home using part of her salary.
One of the receipts showed that the maid had last transferred money back home 17 days before she ran away from her employers.

ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi