Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

An employee who teamed up with his wife to torture his mother to death appeared in court on Wednesday.

The Asian defendant, 29, and his compatriot wife, 28, assaulted the victim, 50s, and left her with multiple fractures and damaged muscles.

They burnt her and dislocated her eyes, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

Prosecutors said the victim succumbed to injuries, fractures and internal haemorrhage as a result of the assault, starting from July 15 until Oct.31, 2018 (the day she died).

They demanded the duo be handed a severe penalty. Both denied the charge.

The wife vainly entreated the jury to release her on bail because there was no one catering for her baby apart from her elderly mother. Her lawyer asked for time. Hearing continues on July.3.
A complaint was filed at the Rashidiyah Police Station.

A post mortem report confirmed the victim was tortured by a hot iron along with other means including beating, neglect and starvation.

She died weighing 29kg only.

The couple’s female neighbour explained, “The woman came to my apartment carrying her baby girl.”

She told me her husband’s mother had come from India to look after the girl but failed to offer the required care.

“She said that during the mother’s tenure as the babysitter, the baby was falling sick every now and then. She added that the mother left for India and that she had no one to look after the baby when she left for work.”

The neighbour tasked her flatmate with looking after the baby.

“Three days later, I had gone to spread my clothes inside a laundry room when I found there a half-naked old woman in a deplorable condition.

“She had burns all over her lower torso. She panicked to tell me the cause. By the time I returned with the watchman she had gone. We knocked from door to door and found her stretched on the floor of a third-floor flat.

“I saw the defendant near her, and the baby. He told me the victim was his mother and that she preferred sleeping on the salon’s floor. The baby’s mother reiterated the same statement,” explained the neighbour.

The neighbour contacted ambulance services. Paramedics lifted her as she screamed in excruciating pain, shedding tears and telling them not to touch her.

The defendant stood at a distance without helping.

He did not escort them to the ambulance until paramedics, upon the neighbour’s request, returned to convince him.

He claimed his mother poured hot water on herself. The exact reason behind the fatal torture is yet to be disclosed.