Dubai: A woman has been jailed for two years for using her married workmates’ passports to get a birth certificate for a baby she conceived out of wedlock.
The Dubai Court of First Instance found the 27-year-old Filipina, C.K., guilty of having sex out of wedlock that resulted in her getting pregnant. She was also found guilty of using the passports of her 31-year-old countrywoman colleague, B.R., and her husband’s and producing them at the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine to acquire a birth certificate for her illegitimate baby girl.
“The accused will be deported following the completion of her jail term,” said Presiding Judge Ali Atiyyah Sa’ad in court on Monday.
When C.K. appeared in court, she confessed to having consensual sex but denied the charge of unlawfully using the passports of her workmates.
Prosecution records said C.K. photocopied her countrywoman’s passport then pasted her photo. She provided the passport photocopies to the hospital where she gave birth and obtained a paper confirming that she was the mother. Then she submitted that paper to the Preventive Medicine department to process an official birth certificate.
Prosecutors also accused her of having unmarried sex with her countryman, M.P., who fled the country.
Prosecution records said C.K. worked in the human resources department along with the married couple in a company based in Silicon Oasis.
“C.K. claimed to me that the free zone’s authority wanted our passports for a routine check-up. We gave her the passports and she returned them after a short period. In March we came to know that C.K. got arrested for being involved in a criminal case. We discovered that she used my passport and my husband’s to issue a birth certificate to her daughter Isabel. My husband and I were registered as the newborn’s parents. We reported the matter to the police immediately after that,” said B.R.
The defendant admitted during prosecution questioning that she had sex with her countryman that resulted in her pregnancy.
Then she used her coworkers’ passports to get a birth certificate.
Monday’s judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.