Maid on trial for killing 4-month-old baby

An Asian housemaid got another chance to live when a court of cassation overturned two death sentences against her after she was convicted of murdering her employer’s four-month-old daughter in Abu Dhabi.

A court of first instance sentenced the maid to death, prompting her to appeal. The verdict was upheld by the appeals court but was later overturned by the court of cassation on the grounds the defendant had no defence lawyer.

A new judge who heard the case on Wednesday adjourned hearings to Nov 12 to allow the defendant’s embassy to get a defence lawyer and to give time to the baby’s parents to consider a request from the embassy to pardon the killer.

The maid had confessed to hitting the baby on the head by a sharp object at her home in the capital in a bid to set the new babysitter up.

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