Woman jailed in UAE for murdering her newborn baby

A mother has appealed her life in prison sentence over murdering her newborn baby in UAE.

The woman had hit her newborn baby onto a bathroom floor because she feared losing her job if her employer found out she was pregnant.

Official court documents stated that the Indonesian woman came to UAE in October 2014 to work for a private company in Abu Dhabi.

After spending more than a month there, the woman - who was married - realised that she was pregnant.

She had been allegedly impregnated by her husband back home.

The Indonesian, however, kept her pregnancy a secret and didn't tell anyone about it at work or her roommates at their company accommodation in Abu Dhabi.

The Indonesian woman went into labour and gave birth on her own in the bathroom of their accommodation.

Officers said that one of the woman's roommates informed her colleagues after she found out that the Indonesian had delivered a baby in their bathroom.

The women informed their bosses, who phoned an ambulance that took the woman and her baby to hospital.

Doctors examined the baby and confirmed that she had died by the time she reached the hospital.  

Investigations by the police and prosecutors revealed that after delivering the baby girl, the woman hit her on the floor before she strangled her to death.

A forensic report said that the baby had strangle marks on her neck and bruises on the head and body indicating that the child was smashed onto the floor which caused her death.

Prosecutors charged the woman with adultery and killing her own baby.

The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance had earlier sentenced the Indonesian to life in prison after she was found guilty of murdering her own baby.

The woman however challenged the sentence saying that she was wrongly convicted. She told the Abu Dhabi Appeal Court on Thursday that she is married and that she had conceived the baby in Indonesia.

"When I felt the labour pains, I rushed into the bathroom and delivered the baby by myself as there was no one in the room to help me," said the woman.

"I then took the baby to hospital but she died on the way. I didn't kill my child."

The Indonesian insisted that the bruises on the baby's head were due to the impact of the child falling on the floor during delivery as no one was there to help her.

"I never smashed the baby on the floor. She fell during delivery but I never meant to hurt her," she said.

She added that marks found on the child's neck were from the umbilical cord that was wrapped around the child's neck as she gave birth to her.

"My child was from a legitimate relationship and there is no way I could have killed her," she added.

However, she failed to explain to the judge as to why she had decided to deliver the baby at home and by herself.

Prosecutors had argued that the woman must have planned to kill her baby, hence keeping her pregnancy a secret because she didn't want to lose her job at the private company.

Source: Khaleej Times