Pearce released after serving adultery term

Rasha Abu Baker and Nour Samaha

• Last Updated: April 27. 2009 11:00PM UAE / April 27. 2009 7:00PM GMT

DUBAI // A British woman who was sentenced to three months in prison for committing adultery was yesterday released from Dubai Central Jail.

A spokesperson for the prison said Marnie Pearce, 40, was released at around 9am after serving 68 days of her three-month sentence. An order to deport Ms Pearce after serving her sentence has been suspended, the spokesperson said.

“She has been released but her passport is being held. Ms Pearce will not be leaving the country because her deportation order was suspended and for some unresolved legal reasons her passport is being held with public prosecution,” she said.

Ms Pearce, a teaching assistant originally from Bracknell in the UK, was serving a sentence for adultery, a charge brought against her by her estranged Egyptian husband earlier this year. She was also fighting a custody battle against him for their two children, aged seven and four.

She subsequently lost the case of adultery followed by the custody battle, and was sentenced to three months in jail followed by immediate deportation, risking never seeing her children again.

According to UAE law, although someone convicted of adultery is eligible to file for custody, they would never legally be able to win a custody battle.

Ms Pearce’s estranged husband was granted full custody of their boys last month after two failed appeals by Ms Pearce in the criminal courts.

Ms Pearce has in the past expressed fear of losing contact with her children, worrying that her estranged husband might take them out of the country using their Egyptian passports.

Ms Pearce was accused of adultery by her husband months after they separated in December 2007.

He first filed for custody in February 2008 and then accused her of adultery. Despite denying the charges, Ms Pearce was convicted in November and sentenced to six months in jail. The jail sentence was halved on appeal in January.

rabubaker@thenational.ae

nsamaha@thenational.ae