Dubai: A mother who confined her 26-year-old daughter to a bedroom for eight years and mistreated her in connivance with her son and two daughters, was handed a six-month suspended imprisonment on Tuesday. Her son and two daughters were handed similar sentences,
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Jordanian mother, her son and two daughters of locking up the 26-year-old victim in her bedroom and constantly beating her up since 2009.
Pronouncing the judgement, presiding judge Mohammad Jamal also ordered the four defendants to jointly pay Dh50,000 in civil compensation to the victim.
In a separate ruling related to the same family case, the father pleaded not guilty and refuted the charge of threatening to kill his 29-year-old daughter if she didn’t testify in favour of the four convicts [mother, son and two daughters] in the case.
The 29-year-old woman had complained to police that while the other case was going on, her father constantly threatened to kill her and have jailed and deported if she did not retract her testimony and testify in favour of the four convicts.
“That did not happen,” the father contended before presiding judge Jamal.
According to Tuesday’s judgement, the mother, son and two daughters will be deported after their sentence.
Records said the family members assaulted the 26-year-old victim and never allowed her to leave the residence for eight consecutive years since 2009.
The 26-year-old student finally got free when her mother was outside the country and her 15-year-old sister assisted her in absconding from the house. She headed to the nearest police station and reported to the duty officer that she had been kept under house arrest [by her mother, two sisters and brother] and deprived of her personal freedom.
The victim said following a dispute with her family, her mother ordered her two sisters and brother to keep her confined to the bedroom and not let her go out. She said she was subjected to regular beatings and given little food while she was confined against her wishes in the house.
The four convicts in court had rejected what they described as the 26-year-old girl’s ‘unfounded and malicious allegations’.
The victim said her dispute with her family began in 2009.
In the other case involving the father, the 29-year-old woman claimed to prosecutors: “Since my 26-year-old sister surfaced in court, my father constantly threatened to kill me and have me imprisoned and deported. He also threatened to stop giving me my allowance if I didn’t testify in the four convicts’ favour … the last time he threatened me was in June,” she said.
Meanwhile the girls’ 15-year-old sister testified to prosecutors: “Since January, my father continuously expressed that he was dissatisfied by my 29-year-old sister. He repeatedly asked her to retract her statement and testify in favour of the four convicts. I heard him saying ‘I will get back from you the Dh3 million I have paid in this case by any means necessary’. He also said that he would have us deported to Jordan where we would die of hunger.”
The 26-year-old victim testified to prosecutors that her father threatened her 29-year-old sister wanting her to change her testimony in the house arrest case against her mother, brother and two other sisters.
Presiding judge Jamal said the court will reconvene on December 9 when the suspect [father] hires a lawyer to defend himself.
