DUBAI // A maid attacked her sleeping employer with a hammer after learning her visa was to be cancelled, a court heard yesterday.
Y?B, 28, from Indonesia, shattered Y?A’s jaw before striking her body and trying to strangle her, prosecutors told the Criminal Court.
The mother of two fought back and pushed the maid into the hallway. Her husband then returned and restrained the maid, while neighbours who heard screams called the police.
Prosecutors said the maid intended to murder her employer after hearing her and her husband discuss cancelling her visa.
The mother woke early on November 19 last year to prepare her eldest child for school.
“I finished and gave the boy to his father then returned to bed,” she said.
About five minutes later she heard someone entering the room but assumed her husband had forgotten something and had returned to pick it up.
“I was awoken by a strong blow to the left side of my head which broke my jaw,” said the mother.
She said the maid hit her with the hammer all over her body, despite her fierce resistance.
She was then pulled into a corner, where the maid tried to strangle her and stop her from screaming.
“My 18-month-old baby walked into the room and as I saw her I feared for her and resisted harder,” the mother said.
“I managed to push the maid into the corridor and pull the hammer out of her hand.”
She claimed the maid then tried to strangle her again but her husband, A?M, 35, came home.
“I saw my wife bleeding from the head and face while the maid was assaulting her,” he said.
A?A, a Libyan woman living next door, also saw the mother. “She was bleeding and had injuries and scratches all over her face, her jaw was hanging and she couldn’t speak or drink water,” she said.
The mother was taken to Rashid Hospital.
The maid was unable to answer questions in court concerning her age or the attempted murder charge. The court ordered that a translator be present at the next hearing on April 1.
salamir@thenational.ae
