ABU DHABI // A man who delivered medicine for a woman’s daughter on a Ramadan night should not have been convicted of beautifying the sin with her, the Federal Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
Ajman Court of First Instance had found them guilty of the charge, which covers romantic but non-sexual liaisons between two people who are neither married nor engaged to be married. The verdict was then upheld by the Ajman Court of Appeal.
The pair, who were both cleared, are not related, and were arrested last year after police raided the woman’s apartment in Ajman finding the man there.
The Court of First Instance ruled that his presence in her house was illegitimate khulwa (time alone together) and fined them both Dh1,500.
The pair referred the case to the Supreme Court of Cassation, arguing that the earlier verdicts had not taken into account the circumstances of the case.
His lawyer said that at the time of the police raid, the woman’s two children were both in the house, the man was sitting in the living room, while the woman was in her bedroom.
They argued khulwa only applied when a man and a woman were alone without a legitimate reason. In this case, they were not alone and the man was only visiting because of an emergency.
The woman’s two daughters confirmed the story.
hdajani@thenational.ae
