Dubai: A court has issued a ruling confirming the marriage of a diplomat and a woman, whom he claimed to be his fiancee and not his wife.

The Dubai Cassation Court ruled that the Gulf national diplomat is the lawful husband of the Arab-African woman, who had produced what she claimed to be court papers, proving that they got married in her home country in 2011.

Gulf News obtained a copy of the cassation judgement in which it was mentioned that the woman produced [in Dubai court] the aforementioned paper [marriage contract] and two witnesses who stated that they were witnesses to the purported marriage at the woman’s homeland.

Records said the Arab-African woman lodged a civil lawsuit before the Dubai Sharia Court in 2014 requesting the court to confirm her marriage to the Gulf national and grant her a certified marriage contract in an attempt to preserve her legal and religious rights as the man’s wife.

The primary court dismissed the woman’s lawsuit.

She later appealed the primary ruling before the Appeal Court that overturned that ruling and confirmed that the two are husband and wife.

The diplomat’s lawyer Hamda Makki argued before the Dubai court that the paper which the claimant had presented confirmed that her client was engaged to the woman and was not her husband, hence countering the marriage claims.

“The claimant presented a court paper which clearly read that her client was engaged to the woman and had promised to marry her. The woman falsely and unfoundedly claimed that my client was her husband … but the paper and documents she produced mentioned that he was her fiance and not her husband. They did not marry, either officially or unofficially. It was written in the paper that they were engaged. The paper is not a marriage contract and there is a huge difference between a marriage contract and a marriage promise … her paper is invaluable and insignificant,” argued lawyer Makki.

The claimant was under an illusion that she was married to the Gulf national, according to the lawyer, who said the woman had sued her client after he had earlier lodged a civil lawsuit against the woman demanding that she repay him Dh2 million that he had lent her.

Lawyer Makki mentioned in the defence: “The woman lodged her lawsuit three years after the purported marriage. My client strongly refuted the woman’s claims that they ever got married. Besides, the civil laws in my client’s country prohibit the citizens of that woman’s country to get married [to their nationals] unless they obtain a preapproval from the authorities of that Gulf country.”

The lawyer asked the court to dismiss the woman’s lawsuit.

However, the Cassation Court upheld the appeal court ruling and considered the couple husband and wife.