Dubai: An Emirati housewife lost her legal battle on Monday after Dubai’s highest court confirmed that she will spend 15 years in prison for beating and torturing her maid to death.

The Dubai Cassation Court rejected the appeal of the 46-year-old housewife, R.M., for a reduced punishment and confirmed her 15-year imprisonment.

R.M. was found guilty of beating her Ethiopian maid K.J. for more than a month in her Al Rashidiya villa. She was also convicted of starving her, forcing her to drink pesticide and preventing her [maid] treatment after she developed pneumonia that resulted in her death.

Presiding judge Mohammad Nabeel Riyadh dismissed the petitioner’s appeal and upheld the 15-year imprisonment.

According to Monday’s ruling, presiding judge Riyadh also confirmed a three-year jail term for the woman’s husband, A.K., for aiding and abetting the crime.

R.M. had denied causing the maid’s death and refuted the accusation of torturing and starving a 30-year-old Filipina maid, E.K., and beating a third maid, W.J.

The Cassation Court also confirmed that R.M. will spend an additional month in jail and pay Dh2,000 for beating W.J.

Records said A.K. confined the maids in a room in the villa and sealed its windows.

The Filipina maid testified that R.M. beat them with sticks while naked, banged their heads against the wall until they bled and forced them to drink detergent.

She said K.J. was so hungry that she searched for food in the dustbin.

Dubai Police’s forensic examiner said forcing K.J. to drink pesticide quickened her death.

The housewife and her husband pleaded not guilty.

The Filipina maid said her employer once forced her to drink Clorox mixed with Dettol because she disapproved of the way she cleaned the bathroom.

She told the court that R.M. did not feed them properly and locked them up for long periods.

“Her brutality made me consider absconding… I failed to do so because we were locked up all the time. She also prevented me from calling my parents,” said E.K.

She testified in court that the maids were beaten till they bled.

According to E.K.’s statement, K.J. fell so ill four days before her death that she couldn’t walk or talk or even go to the bathroom. She said R.M. refused to take the Ethiopian to hospital although she begged her to.

The Filipina said R.M. offered her hush money to keep silent regarding K.J.’s death.

Monday’s ruling is irrevocable.