Dubai: A housemaid has been accused of desecrating the Quran by placing a copy of the holy book on the floor and sitting on it following a heated conversation with her sponsor.

The sponsor was said to have asked her 36-year-old Indonesian maid to clean the residence while she was out of the house in August.

Once the sponsor returned home, she asked the maid if she had cleaned the place, according to records, but did not believe her when she said yes.

The sponsor and the maid got into a heated conversation before she asked the Indonesian to place her hand on the Quran and swear that she had cleaned the house.

The maid then brought a copy of the Quran, placed it on the floor of the room and sat on it.

The sponsor took the maid to the nearest police station and reported what had happened.

Prosecutors charged the Indonesian suspect of vilifying Islam and desecrating the Quran by sitting on a copy of the holy book.

The suspect pleaded guilty when she appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

However, she contended before presiding judge Urfan Omar that she sat on the Quran in order to swear so that the sponsor believed that she had not been lying.

She also reiterated before the court that she did not practise any form of magic.

When presiding judge Omar asked if that [sitting on the holy book] was the common practice to swear on the Quran in her hometown, the suspect replied negatively and contended that she herself was a Muslim and did not intend to insult Islam or the Quran.

A police corporal testified to prosecutors that the suspect 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.

Presiding judge Omar will hand out a ruling on October 30.