Mother jailed for birth registry fraud

An Emirati woman is sentenced to three years in prison for falsifying details on her baby's birth certificate and registering the newborn in another woman's name.

DUBAI // An Emirati woman was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for falsifying details on her baby's birth certificate and registering the newborn in another woman's name. SM, 30, gave away her baby last year after leaving her husband and realising that she did not have the means to support the child. SM approached a friend, another Emirati woman, AS, 27, and asked if she could live with her as she had no one else to turn to in the UAE. SM then asked AS to help her deliver her baby and in return promised to give her the newborn.

AS, who was infertile, agreed and provided SM with copies of her passport and marriage certificate to present to authorities. The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced AS to one year in jail for criminal complicity but suspended the sentence for three years, during which time she will be on probation. Another woman, NS, in whose home SM resided until she delivered the baby, was cleared by the court of all charges.

AS and NS had been charged with assisting SM in committing a crime. They both denied the charges. [e-mail]