Dubai: A housemaid has been cleared of insulting the Quran by placing a copy of the holy book on the floor and sitting on it following a heated argument with her sponsor.
The sponsor was alleged to have asked her 36-year-old Indonesian maid to clean the residence while she was out of the house in August.
When the sponsor returned home, she asked the maid if she had cleaned the place, but did not believe her when she said yes.
The sponsor and the maid engaged in a heated argument before she asked the Indonesian to place her hand on the Quran and swear that she had cleaned the house.
It was alleged in records that the maid brought a copy of the Quran, placed it on the floor and sat on it.
The sponsor reported what had happened to the police.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the Indonesian suspect of vilifying Islam and insulting the Quran by sitting on a copy of the holy book due to lack of corroborated evidence.
The suspect contended before the presiding judge that she sat on the Quran in order to swear so that the sponsor believed that she had not been lying.
When the presiding judge asked if that [sitting on the holy book] was the common practice to swear on the Quran in her hometown, the suspect replied that she herself was a Muslim and did not intend to insult Islam or the Quran.
A police corporal testified to prosecutors that the maid accompanied her sponsor when the latter came at the police station to report the matter.
“The sponsor claimed that when she didn’t believe that the maid had cleaned the house, she asked her to swear on the Quran. Thereafter, the maid brought the holy book, put it on the floor and sat on it … then she told the suspect that she was practising some sort of magic, which the suspect denied doing,” he told prosecutors.
Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
