DUBAI // A maid who was thrown out of her sponsor's house stood in the road waiting for a car to run her over, a court heard.

"Yes, I meant to end my life by standing in the street," the maid, AM, 24, from Ethiopia, told the Misdemeanour Court.

She said she decided to kill herself after her sponsor refused to pay her for three months' work.

The maid claimed she did not know the address of the villa at which she worked, but was thrown out on September 10 after her sponsor complained about her work the previous day.

She asked for her salary for the previous three months to be sent to her family in Ethiopia, but was told her sponsor did not have the money. After being kicked out, she had nowhere to go and did not know how to reach the agency that brought her to the UAE.

"I found myself thrown away and I thought of my poor family back home. I felt desperate and decided I should die," she said.

She stood in the middle of the two-way street and waited.

A 25-year-old policeman was driving near Al Jahith School when he spotted her. "I started talking to her to understand why she was standing there. When she told me I informed her it was wrong to do so," he said. "I finally managed to have her step aside."

The court found her guilty of attempting suicide and fined her Dh1,000.

salamir@thenational.ae

Update: Suicide bid maid is released from prison with readers' help.