QATAR: COURT FINDS WOMAN GUILTY OF TORTURING MAID

a woman resident of Doha was found guilty of torturing her maid to death and given the death penalty by the Qatar Upper Criminal Court this week. The court panel headed by Judge Saleh Al Mohannadi decided to execute the death sentence by firing squad. The court also found the husband primarily responsible for the maid’s death by helping his wife and ordered a three-year jail term. Early last year, the Mesaimeer police were informed a maid had committed suicide in a house at the Old Airport Area and that her body was lying in the bathroom. Injury marks found on the body by the investigation team created suspicion over the causes of death, which led the police to interrogate the couple and their two children. The couple’s five-year-old son told investigators his mother used to severely beat the maid. “She had hit her incessantly with a plastic stick, a rope and even with a hot clothes iron,” he said. When the father was asked if what his son was saying was correct, he replied his son was not lying. He said he knew about what was going on with the maid but could not take any action because giving statement as a witness against her would earn him the wrath of his entire family. The convict has the right of appealing the sentence to a higher court.