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28 March 2024

Woman makes bogus claim of motherhood to gain right to manage child’s inheritance

Published
By Eman Al Baik

An Emirati housewife allegedly falsely claimed to be the mother of a baby boy born in 2007 and, after the death of her husband in 2008, submitted forged documents to the Sharia Court in Ajman with the purpose of getting the right to manage the inheritance of the minor child.

In 2007, SS, 52, had submitted photocopies of her and her husband’s passports in addition to their marriage certificate to the Iranian Hospital, claiming that these documents belonged to a pregnant woman she was accompanying. The pregnant woman gave birth to a baby boy by caesarian section and left the hospital on the next day.

No one knew about the deal between the two women. SS, who was present with the pregnant woman while delivering the baby, claimed that she is her relative. A year later, the husband of SS died and she approached the hospital to get a birth certificate for the boy in order to proceed with inheritance procedures.

She asked the hospital to issue her a birth certificate for the child whom she claimed to have given birth to in the hospital. She was asked by the hospital submit photocopies of her passport and of her husband’s death certificate which she did. SS was not given the child’s birth certificate despite visiting the hospital several times over four years because its management was suspicious of her. The hospital’s management informed the police which investigated the case.

SS told police officer Ruqaiya Ibrahim that she had married FS, a Saudi national, in 2005 and she delivered her baby through him in the Iranian Hospital in April 2007.

Her husband died in 2008 in a road accident so she approached the Iranian Hospital to get a birth certificate for the boy.

Police referred SS to the Criminal Evidences Department to carry out the DNA test for her and the boy. The result was negative as the test proved that she was not the biological mother of the boy.

When confronted with the test result, SS changed her story. She told police that she was not the biological mother of the child but she needed a birth certificate to enroll him in a school.

“She was very hesitant in answering my questions,” said the officer. She claimed that in 2007 she was regularly visiting the hospital for medical treatment.

SS claimed that one day she saw a woman, who looked like an Omani, carrying a newborn baby while she was parking her car in the hospital. The woman told her that she did not want the baby and SS told her she wanted to adopt the baby. The woman put the baby in the arms of SS together with the discharge document of the hospital and disappeared.

SS claimed that she does not know anything about the real mother of the boy. She also claimed that she had approached the hospital to get the child a birth certificate needed to take out a passport in his name but the hospital administration had not helped her.

Doctors at the hospital refused SS’s claims and MH, 45, Iranian gynaecologist, testified that a pregnant woman, accompanied by an older woman, was admitted to the hospital in 2007. The companion of the pregnant woman had claimed that she is a relative and submitted the needed documents to the hospital claiming that they belonged to the pregnant woman. The pregnant woman gave birth to a baby boy through caesarian section because of some complications. The mother left the hospital on her own on the following day, the gynaecologist testified.

“I suspected the documents and complained to the Ministry of Health because when I reviewed her file after she left the hospital, I noticed that the picture on the passport photocopy was not that of the biological mother but that of the woman who accompanied her, so I informed the hospital’s management,” testified the doctor.

MH, an employee at Ajman Sharia Court, testified that SS had filed a case asking for documenting the inheritance of her deceased husband and for granting her the right to be the guardian of her five year old son after the death of his father.

The judge asked her to submit her husband’s death certificate in addition to the documents of the son. She submitted the husband’s death certificate and his passport in addition to a card issued by the Iranian Hospital where the name of the deceased man and her were mentioned as his parents. She attended only the third hearing of the case together with two who witnessed under oath that she is the mother of the boy and that she and the boy are the sole inheritorss of the deceased man.

SS confessed that she had helped the real mother of the boy whom she had conceived via an illicit relationship with her neighbour in Oman.  After giving birth to the boy, the mother left the hospital and handed over the infant to her together with the documents she got from the hospital.

The Dubai Prosecution included the case file, the DNA test which proved that SS was not the biological mother of the boy in addition to a photocopy of the hospital’s file and the file of the Sharia Court of Ajman.

The Court will reconvene on February 9.

Image from shtuterstock