Ras Al Khaimah: A 25-year-old woman has been sentenced to five years in jail for throwing a pan of hot cooking oil at her husband's face after a heated argument.

The RAK court sentenced the Nepali wife though she tried to justify her act saying it was done in self-defence to stop her husband who was beating her up.

The woman said the argument in the kitchen followed similar arguments between them in front of her friends and relatives.

The woman's 38-year-old husband filed a complaint with RAK police, a court official said.

He said the woman was cooking in the kitchen when her husband arrived apparently in a foul mood. He began shouting at his wife who was then holding a pan full of hot oil.

Fit of rage

The couple got into an argument, he said. The husband, in a fit of rage ran towards his wife and tried to strangle her. To defend herself, the wife threw the pan of hot cooking oil at her husband.

Her husband's face was badly injured, the official said.

"She caused a permanent disfigurement to my face," the husband said.

In a court hearing earlier, the woman, who spoke little Arabic, begged the judge to allow her to bring her eight-month-old baby into the courtroom so she could see him. She has not seen him for the nine months she has been in custody, she told the judge.

Housemaid found dead

A housemaid was found dead, hanging in the laundry room of her sponsor's house in Umm Al Quwain, making this the sixth case of suicide in the emirate in 2011, police said.

Lieutenant Colonel Khamis Salem Bu Haron, acting director of the police operation room in Umm Al Quwain, said the body of the woman was found hanging and that the woman apparently used a shaila.

The death of the 34-year-old Indian maid was pronounced last week. She had been working for an Indian family in the Shabiat Al Baidha' area in Umm Al Quwain, said Lt colonel Bu Haron.

"The sponsor's wife discovered the maid's body hanging," he said.

The housewife was worried that there was no sign of the maid for a long time. She searched around the home and got the shock of her life seeing the maid hanging, he said. Apparently the housemaid gave no indication of suicidal tendencies or whether she was depressed.

Lt colonel Bu Haron said police were investigating the case to determine the exact cause of death and the body had been sent for an autopsy.