Dubai: Mother sentenced to life in jail for torturing daughter to death
Woman had claimed girl drowned in bathtub but there were signs of violence on her body
Dubai: Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced a mother to life in jail for torturing her young daughter to death.
Court records showed that on June 22, 2022, the Russian mother had called an ambulance to her house in The Villa community in Dubai, claiming her daughter had drowned in the bath. At that time her husband was in Russia.
The girl was pronounced dead at the site. The age of the child was not disclosed. The girl’s death did not seem to be natural, and the paramedics reported to police that there was a criminal suspicion, as traces of torture, burning, and bruises appeared on the girl’s body. Subsequently, a forensic report showed signs of violence and torture on the girl’s body.
Sustained abuse
The mother used to abuse her daughter physically and psychologically. The girl had been assaulted, beaten and sometimes burned in separate parts of her body. She had also been tortured by being forced to hold her breath underwater in the bathtub at her home before she died.
The police started their investigations and interrogated the mother, who was living with the victim, a two-year-old son and a domestic worker from Russia. On interrogation, the mother denied any connection to her daughter’s death and accused the domestic worker of committing the crime. The domestic worker, aged 24, had left the country on the day of the crime. After an arrest warrant had been issued against him, the Interpol arrested him in his home country airport and returned him to the UAE for questioning.
According to court records, the suspect denied the charges levelled on him, saying that he had come to the UAE on a visit visa several months ago to help the family with the housework and take the victim and her brother to and from school. The suspect stated that during his work with the family, he had noticed that the mother deliberately abused and tortured her daughter on a continuous basis.
Dead body
A day before the incident, the mother locked her daughter up in her room and before he left, she asked him to wake her daughter up and take her to school the following morning, he said.
Using the key given to him by the mother, he opened the door of the room, but he did not find the girl in bed. He heard a faint sound of water coming from the bathroom, he added.
When he opened the bathroom door, he found the victim lying in the bathtub with the water coming out of the tap on her face, he stated.
He thought that she was dead and immediately went to her mother’s room to tell her. But the mother did not seem alarmed, as if she knew what had happened, he said.
At that point, he packed his luggage, ordered a taxi and headed to the airport to leave the country for fear of being accused of killing her girl as she previously told him that she had contacts with VIPs. He left the country to escape from the mother and a crime that he believed she had committed.
After being arrested by the Interpol, the domestic worker was returned to the UAE on the same day.
Mother admits crime
The mother admitted that she assaulted her daughter and left her in the bathtub until she passed away. She was referred to Dubai Public Prosecution and from there to the Criminal Court, which sentenced her to life imprisonment followed by deportation.
Meanwhile, the domestic worker was referred to the Misdemeanor Court, which sentenced him to one month in jail followed by deportation on charges of abstaining from reporting a crime even though he knew it was happening.
The ruling is subject to appeal.