Dubai: A housemaid has been jailed for one year for working in prostitution, having consensual sex with her lover and attempting to abort her baby with a herbal medicine.
The 35-year-old Indonesian was said to have fallen in love with a man, named Ali, and they had unmarried sex. When she conceived, Ali brought her a herbal medicine to abort the baby.
When the abortion failed, the defendant, T.R., absconded from her Emirati sponsor’s house to avoid embarrassment and being exposed.
She worked in prostitution for a living before she decided to turn herself in to the police to be deported.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted T.R. of attempted abortion, working in prostitution and having consensual sex with Ali, who remains at large.
“She will be deported following the completion of her jail term,” said presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi in court on Wednesday.
The defendant pleaded guilty when she appeared in court.
Prosecutors charged Ali with abetting T.R. by giving her the herbal medicine to abort the six-month-old fetus.
The housemaid admitted that she got acquainted to Ali in early 2012 and loved him.
“We had consensual sex several times during 15 months. The last time we had sex was in his minivan in front of my sponsor’s house. The pregnancy test kit confirmed that was pregnant. We agreed to get rid of the baby. Ali gave me the herbal medicine but when the abortion failed, I escaped from my sponsor’s residence to avoid shame.
“I had sex with a Pakistani man for money because I was in desperate need. He also brought me men to have sex with them for money. When I became six-month pregnant, I surrendered myself to the police to be deported,” T.R. claimed to prosecutor.
Records said the woman surrendered herself in June.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
