Recruiter, employee cleared in maid’s death

DUBAI: A recruitment office owner and his female employee suspected to have locked up a maid who decided to commit suicide walked free on Wednesday.

The Arab businessman, 63, and a female Arab employee, 40, were facing the charge of confining the maid to a flat in Al Muraqqabat area and depriving her of her freedom until she decided to commit suicide.

The death incident happened on June 1, as per records at Al Muraqqabat Police Station. They stopped her from leaving the apartment, without a justifiable reason. They locked the apartment door from outside.

She threw herself from the building’s third floor and landed on the ground sustaining fatal fractures and injuries to the head, chest and stomach, prosecutors explained to the jury during a hearing on Sept.11.

A female worker said that the employee who was the last person to walk out of the flat, locked the door while the maid was still inside. A forensic report showed she succumbed to severe internal ha em or rh age. prosecutors demanded the tough est punishment. The businessman contended, “She was brought and handed to a sponsor. She moved from sponsor to another. Finally, she returned from the last sponsor.

“At around 10am on the date of the incident, an employee contacted to notify me that she commited suicide. I was not even aware she had returned to the flat and I never issued any orders to lock the door.”

The employee argued, “I had no role in her death. I was not at the apartment. I just came to learn she had commited suicide.” The Dubai Criminal Court cleared them of the charge and also rejected the civil lawsuit.

In an earlier case, six Filipina jobseekers locked up inside a recruitment office tied bedsheets to form a rope. They were climbing down from a window when one lost balance and fell on the street breaking her pelvis. The Criminal Court ordered the deportation of the office owner and manager. Both argued that they were abroad that day. The Appeals Court cleared them.