DUBAI // A woman who did not have sex with her husband for eight years then gave birth to a baby boy and registered him under her husband’s name has had her sentence reduced by Dubai Court of Appeal.
In October she was sentenced by the Criminal Court to a year in jail for consensual sex outside wedlock and for having a child from the illicit relationship. She also got a six-month sentence for obtaining a false birth certificate by registering the child in her husband’s name, and with using the false certificate to obtain a residency visa and Emirates ID for her son.
The Appeals Court reduced her sentence to six months in total.
The father of the child, Indian S T, 44, was sentenced to six months for having consensual sex and this sentence was upheld after his appeal was rejected.
The husband, who works abroad, told prosecutors that he had not had intercourse with his wife for eight years so was surprised when she gave birth.
The 48-year-old Indian moved to Kuwait for work in 2006 and left his wife and only son in the UAE.
“She started making problems so I remained away, moving from one country to another, but in 2007 she filed a divorce case in India,” the husband told Dubai Criminal Court in September.
Last year his friends in the UAE told him his wife had had a baby.
“She gave birth on April 22, 2010, to a boy at the Welcare Hospital and registered him under my name – but we hadn’t had sex since 2006 so he couldn’t be my son,” the husband said. He went to a police station and reported his wife, S S, 40, who is a nurse.
The court was told that a laboratory report confirmed that the two accused were the child’s biological parents. They both denied all charges in the criminal and appeal courts.
However, both were convicted and will be deported after completing their jail terms.
salamir@thenational.ae
