Dubai: A housewife who tortured her maid by banging her head against the wall and shoved a pair of scissors in her ear causing her partial deafness has been jailed for one year.
The 33-year-old Jordanian housewife tortured her 28-year-old Indonesian maid over three years before the maid absconded and took refuge at the Indonesian Consulate in January 2016.
An Indonesian diplomatic staff took the maid to the hospital for a medical check-up before lodging a police complaint.
Dubai Police’s forensic examiner confirmed that the maid sustained partial hearing disability and other injuries due to the beating.
On Wednesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance found the housewife guilty of torturing her maid, beating her and causing her a permanent disability. She was also found responsible for inflicting a five per cent permanent disability on the victim by shoving the scissors in the maid’s ear.
Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi said the accused will be deported following the completion of her punishment.
When asked in court if she had pushed the pair of scissors in the maid’s ear, the Jordanian woman said: “No, I did not.”
The maid testified that she had worked for the accused for three years, during which she was constantly tortured and abused.
“Whenever I did something wrong, the accused would beat me. She continuously tortured me until I absconded from her residence. Immediately, I headed to the Indonesian Consulate … I informed them how the defendant had tortured me and beat me with kitchen appliances. She used to pull my hair … once she stuffed a pair of scissors in my ear and I couldn’t hear anymore. I failed to run away earlier because she used to lock the doors,” she said.
An Indonesian public relations staff said the victim took refuge at the consulate one weekend.
“She claimed to me that she was beaten and tortured … she claimed the Jordanian threw hot water on her. She said she was beaten for no reason. We complained to the police. Then we complained to Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs that the maid had not been paid her salary for several months. Then we lodged a labour case [on behalf of the maid] against the sponsor,” he testified.
The forensic examiner’s report confirmed that the 28-year-old victim sustained partial deafness, bodily injuries and burns.
The Jordanian housewife was quoted as admitting to prosecutors that she used to lock the maid up in the room at night for her children’s safety. She was also cited as claiming that she didn’t pay her salary between July 2015 and March 2016, when she absconded.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
