Dubai: A 61-year-old woman has been accused of beating her maid, depriving her of her freedom and keeping her hungry until she starved to death in a villa.

Prosecutors said the elderly Emirati woman locked her Indonesian maid in her villa and repeatedly assaulted her and left her without food until she died of hunger in September. She was charged with depriving a woman of her freedom and being liable for her death.

On Thursday, she pleaded not guilty and strongly refuted the charges when she appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.

Bound to a wheelchair, the suspect, who is in custody, told presiding judge Urfan Omar: “No. That did not happen. Not at all.”

The prosecutors said the 61-year-old woman abused the fact that the maid lived with her in her villa, the windows and doors of which she locked to prevent the victim from running away. Then she deprived the deceased of her freedom and kept her unfed until she died of severe malnourishment. The woman was said to be responsible for the maid’s death, according to records.

Dubai police’s forensic examiners confirmed that the victim died of malnourishment.

The suspect’s lawyer Ali Abdullah Al Shamsi told the court: “We want the court to allow us to communicate with Dubai Police’s forensic examination to obtain coloured photos, and not black-and-white photos, that are available in the case file. The black-and-white photos aren’t clear … we need to have coloured photos [just like the ones that prosecutors obtained] to be able to cross-examine the forensic examiner and the prosecution witnesses.”

His counterpart, advocate Mohammad Saadi, also asked presiding judge Omar to hear prosecution witnesses’ statements.

A police lieutenant told prosecutors that Dubai Police’s Operation Room were notified about a maid’s death last year.

“A police team was dispatched to the villa … the maid was fully dressed and had her veil on her head as well. She was on the floor despite the fact that there was a bed in the room. It was an unusual scene. The room was tidy and neat. When asked, the suspect claimed that the victim had fallen down. The woman seemed confused and scared. She repeatedly uttered that she did not do anything wrong. She also refused to answer police questioning. Upon examining, we discovered that the refrigerator and all the cupboards in the kitchen had been locked … the suspect had kept all the keys in her pocket. When asked why she had kept the keys with her, she said it was her food and she was free to do whatever she wanted. Upon opening the locked drawers and refrigerator, we discovered that the food was expired and inedible. When we checked on the suspect’s police records, we discovered that she had a criminal record of assaulting maids. Meanwhile, she had also lodged a number of absconding reports against her former maids. Moreover, police records also contained a special report, issued by the General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs, and in which it was highly recommended that the suspect be banned from sponsoring more maids because she frequently mistreated them,” the lieutenant testified to prosecutors.

A police major testified to prosecutors that the main cause of the victim’s death was starvation.

The suspect’s sister claimed to prosecutors that her sister called her to tell her to come to her villa urgently.

“When I reached her place, I phoned her to [ask her to] open the gate … and she came out and opened [it]. When we entered the maid’s room, I spotted the victim laid down on the floor. She told me that the maid was not moving and I did not know whether she was dead or alive. Thereafter, we called the police and an ambulance,” she testified.

Prosecution records said this is the second case of its kind that the suspect faces.

In the previous case, she was convicted of assaulting her maid in 2013.

The trial continues.