Woman confined to bedroom and beaten for 8 years
Court orders six-month suspended sentences for mother, three siblings
Amother who confined her daughter, now 26, to a bedroom for eight years and mistreated her was handed a six-month suspended sentence yesterday.
The woman’s son and two other daughters were handed similar sentences for being accomplices. The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Jordanian mother, her son and two daughters of locking up the victim in her bedroom and constantly beating her since 2009.
Compensation
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 (the 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 her jailed and deported if she did not retract her testimony and testify in favour of the four convicts.
“That did not happen,” the father told judge Jamal.
The victim was able to break free when her mother left the country and her 15-year-old sister helped her escape. She went to the nearest police station and reported to the duty officer that she had been kept locked up by her mother, two sisters and brother.
Family dispute
The victim said that following a dispute with her family, her mother ordered her two sisters and brother to keep her confined to the bedroom. She said she was subjected to regular beatings and given little food. The four convicts in court had rejected what they described as the victim’s ‘unfounded and malicious allegations’.
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.”