Couple cleared of illicit sex charge

The case dates back to May when the 30-year-old woman on a visit visa called the police after she spotted her husband, the 40-year-old defendant, in a hypermarket in Hor Al Anz in Muraqqabat.

He had been ignoring and avoiding her since she arrived here looking for him. He was being elusive about finalising her residence visa. Hani Hammouda, legal counsel of Kefah Al Zaabi Firm for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy, argued on behalf of the woman that the couple had been married in Iran by a contract. They were married in Iran in August last year. But their contract in Iran was not approved here.

“What they did could not be seen as illicit consensual sex as they were married. If we are to say that it was a crime to be punished by law, which is not the case as they were married by a contract, the incident happened abroad,” he argued.

Hammouda added that the woman reported her husband to the police in an attempt to bring him back to her and make him stamp her residence visa on her passport as he kept avoiding her.

When the case was brought in front of the Court of Misdemeanours Presiding Judge Ibrahim Abu Shamma told the couple that the contract they had, which was drafted in Iran, was not legal.

The woman admitted in court that she had sex with her partner as they were married in Iran. The businessman, however, denied there was any sexual relation with the woman. He denied there was any marriage contract, not temporary or permanent neither here nor in Iran. He pleaded for leniency. Hammouda requested that the court suspended its hearing into trial till he could present a valid and legal marriage certificate according to Article 150 of the Criminal Procedure.

He filed for marriage confirmation and opened a Muslim personal status case at the Shariah Court and witnesses came forward to testify that the couple was married. A marriage confirmation was produced and the couple was cleared later by the court.

In his defence argument, Hammouda said that the statements taken from the woman during the police investigation could not be relied on citing flaws in the translation. — mary@khaleejtimes.com