Sharjah: A housemaid will serve 15 years in prison after a higher court upheld an earlier appeals court ruling for more jail time against the woman for pouring acid on a three-year-old Emirati boy’s face in March 2015, the family’s lawyer said on Wednesday.
The court also ordered her to pay a fine of Dh270,000 and to be deported after serving her sentence.
According to the family’s lawyer, Mohammad Al Owais, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the verdict issued by Sharjah Appeals Court on Monday.
The Sharjah Sharia Court of First Instance originally sentenced the housemaid to three years in jail on January 25, 2016 and ordered her to pay a fine of Dh270,000 and to be deported after serving her sentence.
The jail term was later increased from three years to 15 years after the mother appealed the verdict at the Sharjah Appeals Court.
The maid, who denied the charges, claimed during the original trial at Sharjah Sharia Court that the child poured the chemicals on himself and that she did not attack him.
Medical reports showed the boy, Omar Yousuf Al Wafi, had third-degree burns to his face, legs, hands and body caused by acid.
On Wednesday, the child’s mother told Gulf News during a phone conversation from a hospital in Germany where her son was receiving treatment that she was relieved the sentence was upheld. “I’m very happy and satisfied with the verdict even though it will never return my son to his normal condition. She has prevented my son from [enjoying] his childhood. The maid was found guilty and has been given a tough punishment. Thanks to God for everything,” the mother said.
“I would like also to thank our rulers, court judges and lawyers for their support. Their support reflects how the UAE takes care of its children and gives them priority.”
Sharjah Public Prosecution records showed that the maid admitted that the attack on the little boy was premeditated.
Omar Yousuf Al Wafi suffered third-degree burns on different parts of his body and was taken to Al Qasimi hospital in March 2015.
Ameenah, the sister of Omar’s adoptive mother, told Gulf News that Omar was playing with her 10-year-old son and during play used a colour pen to draw on his [Omar’s] face. The maid came to take Omar away to wash his face, led him inside the house and poured acid on his body. Hearing the screams of the child, the family rushed inside and were shocked to see smoke rising from the boy’s body.
The maid claimed the boy had poured acid on his body.
According to Ameenah, the maid had been working with the family for four years and had asked the family to extend her visa, but her visa was about to expire and she had only one month to complete her services. The family, said Ameenah, had always treated her well and had raised her salary recently from Dh700 to Dh1,000.
An official at Al Qasimi Hospital said the boy suffered third degree burns on his face, hands and legs and would require plastic surgery.
