AL-AIN, United Arab Emirates -- An Islamic court in the United Arab Emirates on Monday sentenced Filipino maid Sarah Balabagan to 100 lashes, a year in jail and deportation on payment of blood money to the family of the man she stabbed to death.


Chief Judge Sheikh Biy'a bin Saliq told reporters outside an Islamic appeal court in the desert town of Al-Ain that the sentence was for one year from Monday.


Asked whether the 15 months Balabagan had already served in prison since she stabbed her 70-year-old Gulf Arab employer Almas Mohammed al-Baloushi 34 times would be taken into consideration, he replied: "No. That is for special cases."


The only way for the maid to be released sooner would be if UAE President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan pardoned her.


But Mohammed al-Amin, Balabagan's main defense lawyer, hoped she would be released much sooner. "I expect she will be freed within a few days," he said.


It was only after a personal appeal for mercy by Sheikh Zaid earlier this month that the family of Balabagan's victim agreed to accept 150,000 dirhams ($41,000) in blood money in exchange for dropping their insistence on her execution.


A Philippines industrialist has already donated the money to the impoverished Balabagan family.


A UAE official said the lashes would be by cane.


Salman Lotfi, one of Balabagan's lawyers, said the person administering them would be required to hold a book under the arm to limit the force applied.


Balabagan was sentenced to death for premeditated murder six weeks ago after an earlier trial convicted her of manslaughter and jailed her for seven years. At her first trial in June the court determined she had been raped but the retrial court rejected her claim that she stabbed Baloushi in self-defense.