Maid who killed her newborn son must see out life sentence

DUBAI // A maid jailed for life for killing her newborn baby must see out her prison term, the Dubai Court of Appeal has ruled.

The Indonesian was convicted of premeditated murder after Dubai Criminal Court heard how she wrapped up her son in a cloth and hit him repeatedly until he stopped moving before dropping the body in a rubbish bin believing he was dead.

The 31-year-old denied killing the baby intentionally in both courts and said she was just trying to get rid of the child because he was born out of wedlock.

“I just threw him in the garbage,” the woman said.

The baby was born on February 27 last year in the bathroom of the maid’s sponsor house. She immediately killed her child and threw him into the trash.

A few hours later, the baby was found by an Indian lorry driver and his two colleagues who were emptying bins in Al Barsha 3.

The 36-year-old heard moaning coming from one of the bins and thought it was a cat. When he opened a plastic bag, he found a child wrapped in a cloth and called police.

The baby was taken to Latifa Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

A 31-year-old Emirati policeman said the maid confessed to getting pregnant after having sex with a man at his home in Al Satwa. The man disappeared after the maid told him she was pregnant.

She will be deported after serving her sentence. A life term is 25 years.

salamir@thenational.ae