Dubai: A maid who tried to kill herself by taking 25 paracetamol tablets after her husband told her over the phone that he wanted to divorce her was jailed for a month on Thursday.
The 33-year-old Indonesian maid was said to have burst into tears and collapsed dramatically in front of her Emirati sponsor when she learnt over the phone from Indonesia about her husband’s plans to divorce her.
“She was chatting with her son when suddenly she started talking to her husband. She spoke loudly and it was obvious that they were fighting over the phone. Then suddenly she hung up and burst into tears. It was very dramatic. I calmed her down and went to work … then she called me and said she wanted to die,” the Emirati sponsor told police interrogators.
Prosecution records said the Emirati woman took her housemaid to hospital where she was treated.
Prosecutors charged the 33-year-old maid, K.S., with attempted suicide on October 28 at her sponsor’s house in Al Qusais.
“Yes I am guilty. I took 25 Panadol pills,” said the defendant before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court on Thursday.
The court sentenced K.S. to one month in jail.
According to her statement before the police, K.S. admitted that she intended to end her life because she was having marital and family problems.
“Since I had been having family problems I decided to put an end to my life … I took 25 Panadol pills. It was my first suicide attempt,” she said.
Meanwhile the sponsor testified that the incident happened shortly after K.S. spoke to her son.
“I heard her shouting over the phone … then she came to me crying. She told me that her husband said he wanted to divorce her. I calmed her down. The next day when I wanted to go to work she asked me to give her the phone so she could call her husband again. I told her that I would give her the phone when I returned in the afternoon. While I was at work, K.S. called me and said she wanted to die. Immediately I phoned my son and asked him to check on her. I rushed back to my home and took her to the hospital … it was the first time that she had attempted suicide.”
The defendant, who has been in custody since October 29, is expected to be released soon.
