Housemaid denies killing newborn

Dubai: A 29-year-old housemaid entered a not guilty plea to infanticide charges after she allegedly stuffed her newborn baby in a travelling bag in an attempt to hide the child from her sponsor.

“I am not guilty. She was born dead,” the defendant, identified as J.A., told Dubai Court of First Instance Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad.

Family and Juveniles Prosecution claimed that J.A. had an affair with a 35-year-old Indian driver identified as A.K.

The two are also being prosecuted before the Dubai Misdemeanours Court for allegedly having illicit relations.

Prosecutors said the newborn girl got suffocated after her mother allegedly wrapped her in a cloth and placed her in a bag.

Debunking the defendant’s claim that the baby was stillborn, a forensic examiner told prosecutors that the baby was breastfed before she died.

An Emirati policeman claimed that J.A. admitted during questioning that she had an illicit affair with A.K. She became pregnant and gave birth in her bedroom at her sponsor’s villa.

She claimed that the newborn was alive when she gave birth and that she cut the umbilical cord with a knife in her room. She then wrapped the newborn with a cloth and hid her inside the bag because she did not want her sponsors to know about it. The baby died inside the bag, the policeman said.

The crime was discovered when the defendant’s Emirati sponsor and her grandson searched her room.

Prosecutors said the sponsor managed to lure the defendant out of her room by asking her to go to the washroom. They were about to open the bag when the defendant came back.

“She said that she would remove her belongings out of the bag. She moved out two sacks then she grabbed the piece of cloth and tried to go out. We stopped her but she resisted, when we asked her about what was hidden in the wrap, she claimed it’s a baby that she got from outside.

“When we discovered that the baby was dead, I immediately called the police,” the sponsor’s grandson told prosecutors.

During questioning, J.A. told prosecutors that she met A.K. in August 2011 and had sex with her. She got pregnant, and delivered the baby inside her bedroom without anyone’s help.

The Ethiopian housemaid confessed that she left the baby inside the bag from 8am till 2pm.

During prosecution questioning, the housemaid claimed that A.K. went into her bedroom that evening and had sex with her against her will. She alleged that she was scared and did not resist because she was afraid her sponsor would deport her.

The court will appoint a lawyer to defend the housemaid when it reconvenes next month.