Dubai babysitter who suffocated employer's child to death, receives life in jail term

November 20, 2014

Dubai Criminal
Dubai, Nov 20: The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced a woman babysitter to life in jail for killing her employer’s 11-month-old child with a scarf.

According to the records, on January 18, while the employer VK, 36, British housewife of Indian origin, was outside her house, she got a phone call from her sister telling her that her daughter, who was in the custody of the babysitter, is in a bad condition.

“I reached home in about 10 minutes and the babysitter was holding the little girl who was not moving or making any sound. I called my daughter but she did not respond. I took the little girl to Zulekha Hospital where I was told that she had passed away two hours earlier,” said VK.

The babysitter was holding the baby while the employer was driving to the hospital accompanied by her son.

“The doctor said the child could have suffocated while having milk or something similar. However, I learnt later from the police that the babysitter had suffocated her,” VK told investigators.

A complaint was lodged with Dubai Police and policemen were rushed to the hospital in Nahda at around 9pm.

The mother of the little girl told police that the babysitter had called her at around 6pm, telling her that the child is having difficulty in breathing.

Doctors said that the little girl had passed away at around 11am the same day.

Police had suspicions about the death of the little girl.

Forensic tests proved that the victim had been suffocated. Confronting the babysitter, she admitted to suffocating the child with a scarf and her hand.

“My employer had left the house at around 3pm and I was alone with the little girl. I brought a scarf and wrapped it around the baby’s neck and blocked her mouth and nose with my hand until she died. Then I went to the hall and played with my employer’s four-year-old son. After that, I returned to the bedroom and I was sure that the baby was dead. I called my employer and told her that the baby is suffering from breathing difficulties and that her condition was abnormal,” admitted the babysitter.

She said she did that to be able to travel home as she could not go home because the employer had nowhere to keep the child.

Forensic reported that the victim was suffocated with a piece of cloth that had been wrapped and pulled strongly around the neck. Bruises on the inner side of the lips and the chin and nail scratches on the eyelid were also reported.

The devastated parents of the little girl told police that the babysitter was very good and that the children loved her.

When the police asked them if the babysitter had sought to go home, the mother answered yes and said that a month earlier RT had asked her permission to travel home as her mother had died.

“We had asked her to wait until her residency formalities are finished,” they said.

The babysitter denied premeditated murder when she appeared before the court.

She told the jury presided by Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi that there had been a scarf on the child’s shoulders when she put her in bed.” I did not kill her. How I could do such a thing when I am a mother?” she asked.

The parents said that they had treated the accused very well and that they considered her a member of the family. They tried to ask her why she had killed their daughter outside the courtroom but police prevented them.

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News Network
April 9,2024

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More decomposed bodies have been found inside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, amid operations to recover bodies of the victims of one of the largest massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinians, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says.

The founder and chairman of the group Ramy Abdu said in a series of social media posts that “operations to discover bodies executed by the Israeli army at al-Shifa Hospital continue.”

He published a “shocking” video that showed rescue teams, civil defense, and forensic evidence finding more decomposed bodies.

“It seems we are witnessing one of the largest massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in history.”

Abdu said the video confirmed the Geneva-based rights group’s report on field execution operations carried out by the Israeli forces during their recent attack on al-Shifa.

“Horror: Doctors, nurses, displaced persons, administrators at the hospital, children, women. This is what is revealed after the Israeli army's withdrawal from al-Shifa Hospital. Dozens of people were executed in the field,” he said.

According to his remarks, the Israeli army placed the bodies inside pits it had dug.

On March 18, Israeli forces started a new wave of attacks on Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, and imposed a two-week siege on it. 

On April 1, the Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces withdrew tanks and vehicles from al-Shifa, adding that dozens of bodies, some of them decomposed, had been found at the complex after the Israeli pullout, which also left behind a vast swath of destruction.

Israel first raided the hospital in Gaza City last November.

Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, has sheltered thousands of Palestinians who fled Israel’s invasion in the northern parts of the territory.

The Israeli military claimed that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is using the facility to “conduct and promote terrorist activity.” Hamas has repeatedly denied operating from Shifa and other health facilities.

The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said al-Shifa is no longer functional because of months of Israeli siege and attacks on the facility.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified violence against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 33,207 Palestinians and injured nearly 75,933 others.

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News Network
April 11,2024

arrestisrael.jpg

The number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli military forces in the occupied West Bank has surged to 8,165 since October 7, when Israel launched its relentless offensive against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees in a joint statement on Tuesday said that over the past 24 hours, Israeli forces had arrested 20 Palestinians across the West bank.

The statement said that most of the arrests took place in Tulkarm, with additional arrests scattered across other cities, towns and refugee camps in the West Bank such as Beit Lahm, al-Khalil, Ramallah, Nablus, Tubas, and al-Quds.

The arrests were made amidst reports of widespread abuse, severe beatings, threats against detainees and their families, and extensive vandalism in citizens' homes and prisoners' residences in the Israeli prisons.

In the aftermath of the al-Aqsa Storm, over 8,165 arrests were made in the West Bank, with individuals including children being detained from their homes, at military checkpoints, coerced into surrendering, and even taken hostage, the statement revealed.

These figures do not include the thousands of adults and children the Israeli army has detained, tortured and interrogated in makeshift prisons across Gaza, outside any legal or civilian oversight.

Conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have allegedly worsened considerably, with detainees experiencing extreme overcrowding and limited access to essential rights, including food, water, electricity, medical care, family visits, and legal assistance.

Palestinian prisoner groups have repeatedly reported that Palestinians in Israeli prisons are being denied medical care, which pushes those jailed to the brink of death.

At least 10 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since Israel’s war on Gaza began, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. But an investigation by Israeli daily Haaretz revealed that the number was actually at least 27. Rights groups put the number even higher.

Israel has intensified its attacks against Palestinians throughout the West Bank since October 7, when it launched a devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Since then, the Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 459 Palestinians from the West Bank, with over 4,750 others sustaining injuries.

In the span of the past six months, at least 33,482 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza. The relentless violence has also resulted in the mass displacement of the 2.3 million people inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

Concerns have been raised regarding the fate of those who have gone missing, as they may be trapped beneath the rubble or confined within makeshift Israeli prisons.

The significant number of Palestinian detainees remaining in Israeli prisons is a crucial role in truce negotiations between Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Israel.

About 130 of the 250 Israeli captives taken during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm are still in Gaza after a provisional truce deal in December saw the exchange of a number of prisoners between the two sides.

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News Network
April 14,2024

New Delhi, Apr 14: In response to the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Sunday issued a statement expressing serious concern over the potential threat to regional peace and security.

"We are seriously concerned at the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran which threatens the peace and security in the region," the MEA said in the statement.

The ministry called for an immediate de-escalation of the situation, emphasizing the importance of exercising restraint and refraining from further violence. 

Stressing the need for diplomacy to prevail, India urged both parties to step back from confrontation and seek peaceful resolutions to their differences.

"We call for immediate de-escalation, exercise of restraint, stepping back from violence and return to the path of diplomacy," the MEA said. 

India, closely monitoring the evolving situation, assured that its embassies in the region are actively engaging with the Indian community, providing support and assistance as needed.

"We are closely monitoring the evolving situation. Our Embassies in the region are in close touch with the Indian community," the MEA affirmed.

Highlighting the significance of maintaining security and stability in the region, India reiterated the importance of all parties involved prioritizing peaceful dialogue and cooperative measures. "It is vital that security and stability are maintained in the region," the MEA said.

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