Abu Dhabi appeals court overturns women’s deportation ruling

Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal overturned the ruling of the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance against a 40-year-old woman who was the daughter of the UAE but did not hold UAE citizenship, stipulating that she would be deported for being accused of not having a passport. Entering the country illegally without an entry visa.

The Court of Appeal ruled that “a foreigner who is the spouse or first-degree relative of a UAE citizen at the time of the offense shall not be sentenced to deportation unless the sentence was for a crime affecting national security”.

Al Abbadi said: “There are multiple aspects and a humanitarian aspect to this case. UAE law takes into account such humanitarian issues. It is true that the woman made a mistake in trying to obtain her sister’s passport, but she is an Emirati Daughter of a UAE citizen by nationality.Since the woman’s father has UAE nationality, the trial court’s decision to deport her is legally deemed null and void, according to the interpretation of the enforcement decision, because the law does not allow the deportation of a person if he or She is the spouse or first-degree relative of a UAE citizen.”

When the woman took her sister’s UAE passport and left the country on a passenger bus bound for the Gulf countries, the competent authorities detained her. After inspection, she was found to be a fake, without official documents, and entered illegally without an entry visa or permit or residence permit. The country. No information on her was found to show that she entered the country legally.

“The public prosecution presented the client as a foreigner who illegally infiltrated and entered the country without a valid passport and a valid visa, and she had previously attempted to leave the country illegally,” Al Abbadi said.

The accused was taken from her cell to stand before the trial court and questioned through an interpreter. The woman confessed to two charges against her and claimed her father had brought her to the country as a child and she had tried to leave the country without knowing the exit procedures. She claims that while she was away, she was held. She asked the court for clemency.

The court of first instance found the accused guilty and sentenced her to one month’s imprisonment for the related offenses for which she was guilty, and deported her. It also ordered her to pay the prescribed fine.

The defendants appealed, and their lawyers argued that criminal cases would lapse over time. He said in the defense memorandum: “The first charge was against the accused when she was young because she entered the UAE with her father, who was a UAE citizen, and the ruling erred in the application of the law when it passed the deportation of him. client, because the person convicted in the criminal sentence cannot be deported if he is the spouse of an Emirati or a first-degree relative of a UAE citizen}. According to a memorandum submitted by the woman’s lawyer, the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal decided to revoke the decision of the Court of First Instance The verdict is to send the woman back to her family.”