Ms Maharipa says she was intimidated to sign a statement by the Abu Dhabi police who came with police dogs and equipment to torture with electric shock

Abbdul Karim Kansur Maharipa, a mother of three, was sentenced to death for allegedly murdering the wife of the employer.

A resident of Selvanagar, Muttur, in eastern Sri Lanka, Maharipa told journalist RG Dharmadasa that the first case filed by her employer was dismissed by a lower court.

She was then intimidated to sign a statement, she said, by the Abu Dhabi police who came with police dogs and equipment to torture with electric shock.

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She was sentenced to death by an upper court based on the “confession” she has signed.

I wrote to the government, to the president, to Foreign Minister Bogollagama but nobody helped me. I could only tell God Ibrahim Nausar, Maharipa's husband

A group of Abu Dhabi lawyers have then appeared for her, free of charge, to appeal against the conviction.

“A group of lawyers appeared for me when I told them that neither Sri Lanka foreign ministry nor foreign employment bureau helping me to appeal against the death sentence,” Kansur Maharipa, 38, said.

The death sentence was commuted to seven-year prison sentence as a result.

She recently returned home after serving the seven-year sentence.

Her husband, Ibrahim Nausar says that the authorities did nothing to help change her plight despite repeated appeals.

“I wrote to the government, to the president, to Foreign Minister Bogollagama and Minister Risat Bathiuddeen but nobody helped me. I could only tell God,” he told RG Dharmadasa.

The Sri Lankan authorities, however, have claimed that the maid was pardoned as a result of the continuous diplomatic efforts.

The Sri Lankan embassy in UAE was quoted in the media saying that the embassy along with the external affairs ministry had been closely working on the clemency plea.