Abortion cases sent back to prosecutors

DUBAI // A cleaner accused of performing abortions for Dh1,000 each has had his case returned to prosecutors by a Dubai court, in a move that may lead to a charge of premeditated murder.

A verdict was expected yesterday, however Judge Hamad Abdul Latif of the Dubai Court of First Instance ordered further investigation as court papers showed one foetus had been born alive but died hours after the abortion.

MS, 32, from Bangladesh, is already charged with performing two abortions illegally and practising medicine without a licence.

An Indonesian woman, HB, 30, went to MS for an abortion in her sixth month of pregnancy in September last year, prosecution records show. A few hours after taking the medication on September 8, she gave birth to a boy, who died about 10 hours later.

Months earlier, NP, 34, an Indonesian maid, had a child with a man identified as R, court records show.

When the baby was seven months old NP again became pregnant, she told prosecutors.

She said R, who remains at large, told her about MS and suggested that he help her to abort.

MS gave her two injections and five pills for Dh1,000, court records show. Five hours after she took them the pregnancy was aborted.

NP told prosecutors she buried the dead foetus behind the home of a compatriot, FP.

MS has denied the charges.

salamir@thenational.ae