Maid tortured to death with scalding water, Abu Dhabi court told

ABU DHABI // A woman tortured her maid to death by tying her up with electrical wire and pouring boiling water over her, a court was told yesterday.

Police allege the woman poured boiling water over the maid and tied her up with electrical wire, the court heard. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/AFP/Getty Images)

A S, an Emirati, said her mother abused the Ethiopian maid daily after she moved in during Ramadan.

She said she was whipped with wire and had pepper rubbed in her eyes for her perceived “laziness”.

Her death was the result of several burns all over her body that had become infected. Her eyes showed evidence of bleeding from the torture, which a doctor concluded had taken place over “several periods” of time.

The woman admitted torturing the maid but denied pouring boiling water on her. “I was angry,” she told the Criminal Court and denied intending to kill the maid.

“How did you kill her unintentionally?” asked Chief Justice Sayed Abdul Baseer. He asked her to clarify the method of torture, which she failed to do, and asked for her motive.

“If you were not satisfied by her work you could have fired her, but why go as far as murder?” he asked.

The woman was arrested after her son reported the maid’s death. She admitted to prosecutors she whipped the maid with wire 10 days before her death because she was lazy.

After the maid died the woman asked her daughters to wear gloves and change her bloody clothes.

In court, she failed to clarify whether she wanted her children to attend the next hearing to testify.

The defence lawyer said he did not need them to do so as their testimonies to police were sufficiently clear.

Source: The National