Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The life of a 10-year-old girl living with her family in Dubai has been transformed to hell at the hands of her mother, who has always raised her in the wrong way and abused her physically and psychologically.

The girl’s torture came to an end only when she was pronounced dead. The report of the General Department of Forensic Science and Criminology showed signs of violence and torture on the girl’s body.

This was considered as one of the most heinous crimes that could be committed, as the girl, who came from an Eastern European country and did not cross 10 years of age, had been assaulted, beaten and sometimes burned in separate parts of her body.

She had been even tortured by being forced to hold her breath under water in the bathtub inside her family’s house before she died.

The incident took place in a house in The Villa in Dubai when an ambulance rushed to the place after the girl’s family had told the police that their daughter drowned in the bathtub.

As the girl’s death did not seem to be natural, the paramedics reported that there was a criminal suspicion, as traces of torture, burning, and bruises appeared on her skinny body.

The police started gathering inferences and interrogating the mother, who was living with the victim, a two-year younger son and a domestic worker. The domestic worker was not at home during the interrogations and was found to have left the country on the same day of the incident.

On interrogation, the mother denied any connection to her daughter’s death and accused the domestic worker of committing the crime. After an arrest warrant had been issued against him, the Interpol arrested the domestic worker upon his arrival at his home airport.

According to the official documents, the suspect denied the charges levelled to him, pleading that he came to the UAE on a visit visa several months ago to help the family with the housework and take the victim and her brother to and from school.

The suspect stated that during his work with the family, he had noticed that the mother deliberately abused and tortured her daughter on a continuous basis.

A day before the incident, the mother locked her daughter up in her room and before he left, she asked him to wake her daughter up and take her to school the following morning, he said.

Using the key given to him by the mother, he opened the door of the room but he did not find the girl in bed but heard a faint sound of water coming from the bathroom, he added.

When he opened the bathroom door, he found the victim lying in the small floor bathtub with the water coming out of the tap on her face, he said, adding that he thought that she was dead and immediately went directly to her mother’s room to tell her.

Much to his surprise, the mother reacted calmly at the news as if she knew what had happened, he said.

At that point, he packed his luggage, ordered a taxi and headed to the airport to leave the country for fear of being accused of killing her girl as she previously told him that she had close relations with VIPs.

Being shocked by the mother and her coldness, he left the country to escape from the mother and a crime that he believed she had committed, he said.

After being arrested by the Interpol, the domestic worker was returned to the UAE on the same day.

Faced with the domestic worker’s statement, the victim’s mother admitted that she assaulted her daughter and left her in the bathtub until she passed away. She was referred to Dubai Public Prosecution and from there to the Criminal Court, which sentenced her to life imprisonment.

The domestic worker was referred to the Misdemeanor Court, which sentenced him to one month in jail on charges of abstaining from reporting a crime even though he knew it was happening.