Maids Sentenced In Dispute With Belly Dancer

Three maids hiding in the Philippine Embassy were sentenced Saturday to a year in prison for stealing $147,000 from Egypt’s most famous belly dancer.

The Filipina maids fled in March to the embassy, which has refused to turn them over to Egyptian officials. They deny stealing the jewelry and cash and say dancer Fifi Abdo is simply trying to get them back for quitting their jobs after six years.

They say Abdo refused to pay them and never allowed them to take vacations. Abdo has denied mistreating them.

The court sentenced them in absentia to a year at hard labor.