United Arab Emirates: Maid sentenced to death for murder of infant

Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: An Indonesian maid charged with the murder of her employer’s four-month-old child will receive the death penalty, a second court of appeals has ruled.

Although the defendant, S.T., had initially been found guilty at the Criminal Court of First Instance, the death penalty verdict was looked into by the court of appeals and a lawyer was assigned for the suspect.

The decision was rendered on Wednesday.

She is accused of killing the child, Malak, out of jealousy for her Filipina nanny earlier this year. Court documents state that the cause of death was head trauma and home security cameras caught the defendant taking the child out of her crib and returning her there four minutes later. The defendant reportedly bashed the child’s head against a wooden table at the victim’s home.

However, the court-assigned lawyer reportedly did not take his task of defending S.T. seriously and so the case was looked into again by a second court of appeals that upheld the verdict.

The victim’s parents insisted on carrying out the maximum punishment in the case, and declined to accept any proposals for leniency.

Malak’s caretakers will be present at the execution.