A woman, named Blessing Obama, will spend three months in a Dubai prison after forging documents and overstaying her visit visa.
On July 9, the Nigerian namesake, 29, visited Dubai’s residency and naturalisation department to request that the paperwork allowing her to exit the country because she had overstayed her visa be expedited.
"Her passport looked like it could have been altered so I sent the passport to the criminal lab for inspection. They confirmed that the visit visa stamp was forged, as was the first page of the passport that contained her personal information," an Emirati passport officer, 48, told Dubai Criminal Court.
He said that the woman became tense when he confronted her so he referred her to prosecutors for investigation.
At Dubai Criminal Court last August, the woman denied charges of forgery, use of forged documents and overstaying her visa. On Monday, Obama was convicted and sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a Dh2,000 fine for overstaying her visa.
Read more: Saddam Hussain on pornography charge in Dubai court
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
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