Dubai: A widowed mother has taken her brother-in-law to Sharia court to regain custody of her two children from their uncle saying he is incompetent and unfit to nurture them.

The Dubai-based woman lost her husband more than six years ago and the paternal grandfather became the legal custodian of the two children, who were still minors then. In 2015, the uncle lodged a lawsuit before Dubai Court seeking to become the new custodian of the children after their grandfather left for his country.

In his lawsuit, the uncle sought to be responsible for the children’s financial and administrative affairs.

The court transferred the custodianship from the grandfather to the uncle based on documents provided by him.

However, the mother decided to fight back and lodged a counter lawsuit before the Dubai Sharia Court trying to win back the custody of her children due to the brother-in-law’s bad influence on them.

“The custodian [uncle] constantly scolds my children and treats them badly. He is unfit to raise them and incompetent to take care of them or provide them with the proper support, especially financially. He constantly drinks liquor and is a frequent clubber. He does not give them money. Every time they ask him for allowance or to pay schooling fees, he tells them that he doubts that they are his brother’s children. He even asked them several times to go do a DNA test to verify whether they are related to his late brother,” the mother mentioned in her lawsuit.

Gulf News learnt that the Sharia court judge handling the case heard witnesses in the case on Tuesday and decided to reconvene next month to hear more witnesses and the defendant’s legal response to the lawsuit lodged against him.

According to records, the Asian litigants hail from two different countries.

The mother claims to have lodged her lawsuit against the brother-in-law, who started mistreating the children after their father died, although he was completely out of the picture and never checked on her sons.

“When my husband was alive, the defendant was unrelated to his brother or the family … my children did not even know that they had an uncle. Immediately after my husband died, he showed up suddenly and started troubling me … he constantly fought with me and accused me of false things. He lodged several police complaints out of malice. All the cases were dropped for lack of evidence. His main aim was to pressure me … once he beat my daughter and me. I complained to the police but later I was pressured by family and relatives to waive the complaint … and so I did for the family’s sake. He frequently curses my children and tells them that he doubts their descent … the thing that has left my children emotionally distressed. Five years back, he took over my husband’s company and has never given my children their share or paid them anything. He never submitted any financial statements to show the company’s proceeds. He is not a loyal person, hence, he is incapable of running my children’s finances. He provided papers to the court claiming that his father [the grandfather] was living in the UAE for the latter to be granted the custody … but my father-in-law has never been here before. I ask the court to grant me the custody because I am the best person to nurture my children,” the widowed claimant said in her lawsuit.