Dubai: A mother has been battling for more than three years to regain custody of her six-year-old daughter who was kept with her neighbours after a court jailed her in a case.

When the American mother was imprisoned by a court for her involvement in consensual sex case in 2012, she kept her daughter with her Sudanese neighbours to take care of her temporarily as she has no direct relatives and the girl’s biological father resides abroad.

After the mother finished her imprisonment the same year, the neighbours refused to give back the girl and the male neighbour claimed that he was the father of the six-year-old and that the American mother was his wife.

The American mother, according to court records obtained by Gulf News, refused to be deported without her daughter and initiated a legal battle to win back her daughter’s custody that she’s fighting from inside prison.

The woman cannot leave prison since there’s a court order to have her deported.

In her lawsuit before the Sharjah Courts, the woman presented certificates proving her marriage to the girl’s biological father and the daughter’s birth certificate (born in 2010).

The American also presented a certificate confirming that she also gave birth to a boy from the same biological father to convince the court that she has never been married to the Sudanese neighbour.

“The defendant’s claims that we were ever married or that he is the girl’s biological father are baseless, unfounded and fabricated. He has failed to prove that we ever married. His witnesses’ testimonies that we were married were false. He has never been able to corroborate his allegations that he was my husband or that he fathered the girl. I delivered her in the UAE in 2010 and the Sudanese birth certificate, of which he [defendant] provided a copy to the court, is clearly forged, especially as it’s dated 2013. Why would he wait three years to issue a birth certificate and from Sudan?

“His main purpose is to benefit from my daughter’s nationality and a cheap attempt to obtain an American passport for him and his wife. I have repeatedly requested the primary court to have the defendant undergo a DNA test to confirm whether he’s the biological father, which he isn’t. He has been exploiting the fact that I’m behind bars to win my girl’s custody and achieve the aforementioned personal gains [obtaining the American passport]. My girl was never born in Sudan and has never visited it. The defendant has been arguing otherwise,” the mother argued in her lawsuit before the Sharjah Appeal Court.

In December, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court reversed the case back to the appellate court in Sharjah because prosecutors should have provided the Appeal Court with a written or verbal legal opinion as it involves a minor. The Appeal Court then requested prosecutors to give their legal opinion.

Prosecutors replied that they will leave the final decision [pertaining to the DNA test] to the appellate court.

Meanwhile, the mother asked the appellate court to dismiss the defendant’s counter lawsuit in which he alleges that he had married the American mother which resulted in the birth of the six-year-old girl.

“Despite the fact that he produced witnesses who alleged that he had married me, that doesn’t conclusively confirm or prove his fatherhood. The biological father did not appear in court and testify that he’s the real father … but that by itself does not deny the fact that he’s the real father. My son currently lives with his biological father, who has, for unforeseen and inhuman reasons, refused to testify in court that he’s the biological father following a lawful marriage that still stands till today. We have repeatedly asked prosecutors and the legal authorities to carry out the required DNA test to prove that the defendant is not the biological father he claims to be. The country’s legal system remains my last and only hope to take back my daughter and have us reunited despite the defendant’s illegal and unfounded attempt to take her away from me,” contended the mother in her lawsuit.

Gulf News has learnt that the Appeal Court [in April] dismissed the American woman’s lawsuit.

Thereafter she has appealed that ruling in an attempt to present her case before the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi and try to get custody of the child from the neighbour.

A hearing will be scheduled soon before the capital’s highest court.