Teacher jailed for forging marriage documents is freed at Dubai appeals court

DUBAI // A teacher who was sentenced to three months in prison after being found guilty of forging her marriage papers to change her dowry from 100,000 to 500,000 Yemeni riyal was on Thursday acquitted at the Appeals Court.

Yemeni F A, 38, was convicted by Dubai Criminal Court last year although she denied charges of forgery and using the forged documents.

Prosecutors said she submitted the forged marriage papers to a judge at Dubai Sharia Court as part of her divorce battle.

At the Criminal Court last September she said: “I got married when I was 14, your honour. The agreements were made between my father and my husband.

“I had no idea what amounts for the dowry they agreed on or wrote down in the contract.”

Records said the forgery was made in 2011. She had been married since 1999 and in 2010 filed for divorce.

A forensics report stated the number had been changed to 500,000 Yemeni riyals (Dh8,550) using chemicals. The report also said the number 500,000 was not written in words at the end of the document, as it should have been.

“When she filed for divorce I looked at the marriage contract she submitted and found out it was forged,” said her Yemeni husband, aged 39.