American teacher convicted of lying in Dubai court

Dubai: An American teacher has been convicted of giving a false statement to government authorities to process a passport for an infant whom she described as abandoned.

The Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday sentenced the 46-year-old teacher to a three-month suspended jail term.

Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir said the forged documents would be confiscated.

"The Dubai Public Prosecution's Social Care Unit will follow up on the baby's status. The unit will contact the concerned authorities to process new personal identification documents and issue an original passport [for the infant]. Regarding the baby's custody, he might be placed in the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children for care and support or he might be sponsored by any interested family whom concerned authorities deem socially suitable to raise him. The baby's welfare and upbringing is of great importance to the Public Prosecution and the Social Care Unit," a senior prosecutor told Gulf News.

Asked about the fate of the baby, Judge Mounir said the court's role in the case was "purely judicial". He said they only tried the defendant for the crime and the three-member jury had no connection with the baby's situation.

Acquitted

The court also acquitted a Canadian psychologist who was accused of aiding the teacher in fabricating a story before Dubai Sharia Court officials that they found the abandoned baby.

The teacher's lawyer, Khalifa Al Salman, said he will appeal the verdict.

Earlier, he argued that "the defendants did not have any criminal or sinister intention. Their main aim was to obtain custody of the baby, who was abandoned by his parents, and give him proper and decent housing plus love, care and family".

Prosecutors said the director of a Dubai-based women's shelter asked the teacher to tell government officials that she found the baby on her doorstep and that she didn't know the identity of the baby's parents.

The shelter director, an American married to an Emirati, asked the teacher not to reveal that the baby was born out of wedlock.

Prosecutors charged the teacher, L.M., with falsely alerting Al Rashidiya Police Station that she found the baby at her doorstep.

L.M. was also charged with concealing the truth about the infant's parents before the Dubai Sharia Court.

Based on her statement, the court granted her a certificate declaring that she was the infant's guarantor and caretaker. She used the certificate to process a Liberian passport for the infant.

The court cleared the Canadian, S.F., of aiding and abetting L.M. and the shelter director, S.G., for lack of evidence.

Al Salman told the court that the defendants were just trying to do a good deed by helping the infant.

An Emirati police officer testified: "An informant alerted us that S.G. exploited [the shelter] through buying illegitimate babies who are unwanted by their parents and selling them to other women. We informed the state security about this matter and broadened our investigations which led us to a Russian woman, I.K., who carried an out-of-wedlock baby. I.K. claimed that her friend, named N. connected her to S.G. who paid for her delivery in a hospital in Al Ain."