Ibrahim Alawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The Administrative Court in Jeddah has sentenced a citizen to one year in prison and a SR1,000 fine for falsifying documents and registering a newborn baby he fathered with another woman in his first wife’s name.



He presented his family card when he admitted an Ethiopian woman to the Maternity and Children's Hospital, claiming that she was his wife.



The first wife learned of the incident from her husband’s family and filed a complaint with police to investigate the case.



Police referred the case to the court, which decided the man had harbored an illegal resident and had illicit relations with her.



The husband, however, told the court the Ethiopian woman was his third wife and that due to delays in government procedures to obtain permission to marry her, he went ahead and married her anyway.



He said that she needed a Caesarean that would have cost him SR15,000 in a private hospital.



As he did not have the money, he admitted her to a government hospital and presented his family card to the hospital, claiming that she was his first wife.



He told the court he was married to three women and had informed the first that he had married the expatriate woman and that she had given birth to a baby.



He claimed that his first wife waived her rights to the case and that she was still married to him.