Jail term upheld for mother who lied about identity of baby's father

DUBAI // The Appeals Court today upheld a three-and-a-half-year prison term for a mother who lied about the identity of her child's father.

SM, a 30-year-old housewife from India, ran away from her husband at the time of the baby's birth in 2008 before adding the wrong name to the child's birth certificate. Records did not make clear her motive for doing so, or whether the baby was the result of an illicit relationship.

She was sentenced to three years in jail for lying about the child's father, and six months for forging the birth certificate.

The court also upheld a one-year jail term for her compatriot NS, 45, who was convicted of helping her to forge the birth certificate, though it also upheld the acquittal of NS's daughter AS, 27, on a similar charge.

The housewife's link to the mother and daughter was not made clear in court records, but at their trial in the Dubai Criminal Court in April they denied complicity saying they had not seen the housewife since 2006.

"I have been living in the UAE for the past 27 years and have never committed any offence," said NS.

It was unclear why the case took almost four years to arrive at the court.

salamir@thenational.ae