By Nour Abuzant
A DOHA Appeals Court has commuted the death sentence given to an 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. The court upheld the deportation of the convict (31) after she serves the jail term.
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.
The upper court found no evidence to support the public prosecution’s claim that the husband (41) was aware of the torture of the maid and that he had simply ignored it.
The court ruled that the testimony of the couple’s five-year-old son against his mother was not reliable, considering his tender age. The appeals court said that a testimony for or against a close relative could not be reckoned.
Court attendants said that following the pronunciation of the appeal court’s decision, the Egyptian family “celebrated” the woman’s escape from death penalty.
Earlier, the judges heard that the victim, a 24-year-old Filipina, had suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her employer over a period of six months.
A forensic report presented to the court showed that when the young woman’s body was recovered it was heavily bruised, some of her teeth were missing and it was clear that she had been starved.
The crime came to light on June 22, 2007, when 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.
The child said that his father, the general manager of a private construction company, had witnessed the abuse but had never intervened to save the maid. However, his testimony was not considered.
A source, who saw Melissa’s body, said it was likely that she had been battered with a hot iron.
“There were bruises on the arm and some of her teeth were also missing,” he said.
A spokesman for the Philippine embassy said they would comment on the new verdict only after receiving a copy of the verdict following the Eid break.
The Public Prosecution can appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court of Justice. |
