QATAR: APPEALS COURT COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE IN MAID MURDER CASE

December 7, 2008: a Doha Appeals Court commuted the death sentence given to a 31 year old Egyptian woman, accused of murdering her Filipina maid, to three years imprisonment.
The woman’s husband, who was sentenced to three years in jail, was acquitted by the second-degree court for lack of evidence. The appeals court said the case in question was “beating that led to death”, ruling out the charges of premeditated murder.
Legal sources said the family of the victim chose to accept a compensation of QR150,000 and they had dropped the claim for execution of the convict.
On June 22, 2007, the maid’s body was discovered in the bathroom of her employer’s house in Doha’s Hilal area. According to sources, the Egyptian housewife began to physically assault her maid after her five-year-old son complained that he had been mistreated. According to the child’s testimony, given to police officers investigating the crime, his mother used to regularly assault the maid, sometimes tying her to a chair to prevent her escape.
The maid, who came to Qatar 14 months before her death, was also denied food and her weight at the time of her tragic end was a pitiful 39kg. (Sources: Gulf Times, 07/12/2008)