Dubai: A maid, who conceived out of wedlock, tried to sell her two-week-old daughter for Dh10,000 in collaboration with her co-worker, a court heard on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Ethiopian maid was said to have flown into the UAE in 2013 and worked for an Emirati family before she absconded in 2017.

After having worked in several places for around six months, her friend introduced her to an Emirati man, according to records, and for whom she started working as a maid.

Shortly after, the man allegedly took her to a flat in Dubai where he locked her up for some time, during which he used to go and have consensual sex with her.

Records said the Emirati then took her by car, gave her Dh500 and then dropped her in a street and asked her to leave.

Thereafter, the 30-year-old discovered that she was pregnant and when she discussed her illegal pregnancy with her 28-year-old countrywoman friend, also a maid, the latter convinced her to sell the baby.

A police informant alerted the police that the two Ethiopian women were looking for someone to buy the baby girl for Dh10,000.

The two women were apprehended in a sting operation.

Prosecutors charged the suspects, the mother and her friend, of child trafficking.

According to the accusation sheet, prosecutors said the mother had stripped herself of humanity and motherhood and committed a human trafficking crime when she decided to sell her own daughter in collaboration with the 28-year-old suspect.

The two suspects pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

A police lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that an informant alerted them that a woman, who had conceived out of wedlock, wanted to sell her baby.

“We provided the informant with Dh10,000 as part of a sting operation … the informant was supposed to pose as a buyer. The informant communicated with the mother and they agreed to meet in Al Ghusais. Shortly after the suspect [mother] collected the Dh10,000, police raided the spot and apprehended the two suspects. During questioning, the mother admitted that after she absconded, the Emirati man for whom she worked got her pregnant out of wedlock. The 30-year-old suspect claimed that the Emirati man gave her Dh500, left her alone in the street before she discovered that she had become pregnant. She claimed that she delivered her baby in Ajman then when she contacted the man to give her money to bring up the child, the latter visited her along with another woman [who turned out to be the informant],” he testified to prosecutors.

An Emirati housewife claimed to prosecutors: “My cousin told me that my ex-husband [the Emirati man] had told them that a maid [the suspected mother] wanted to get rid of her illegitimate child. He also told them that he was not sure whether the baby was his or not. I went to Ajman to check on the baby’s health. When we were leaving a clinic, I told the suspect to give me the child and I would take care of her and raise her … at first the 30-year-old refused and then she asked for money to give away her baby girl. I notified the police who arrested the suspect in a sting operation.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi tried to communicate with the suspects to get more details about their denial, but the two women failed to respond.

The judge adjourned the case until an Ethiopian language translator is present in court on February 21.