A 12-year-old boy was acquitted this week in UAE's Ajman courts after he was charged for having consensual sex and impregnating his family's house maid, according to Gulf News.
The courts charged both the boy and the maid for having sex outside of marriage, considered illegal under UAE law. The alleged lovebirds were sentenced to become jailbirds for six months each, but Ajman's Appeal Court acquitted the boy after his advocate, Eisa Bin Haider, argued that "my client is a small boy and should be tried as one."
According to Haider, the 12-year-old Emirati was too "small" at the time of the alleged impregnation to not only be the baby's father, but also to be tried as an adult in front of Ajman's main court. "My client is a small boy and he should have been tried like one. He is not an adult. [He is a juvenile]. Records said my client made a reservation in a Ajman hotel and had sex with the maid there. This is impossible and illogical. There is no way on earth that any hotel management would accept a hotel reservation for an underage person… actually it is illegal," he said.
According to the boy's testimony, he had consensual sex on two occasions with his 28-year-old maid --once in her bedroom, and one time in his -- the last time reportedly in late May. Medical reports show that she is due to give birth in February, approximately 9 months after the sexual encounters.
Haider also argued that the alleged love-affair was perhaps more of a love triangle, suggesting that the maid, who is originally from Ethiopia, was actually having an affair with another person and was using her sexual encounters with the Emirati boy as a cover-up to stop authorities from deporting her. “Obviously the Ethiopian maid was involved in a sexual affair with a third party… because she had disputes with the brother of my client; she alleged that the 12-year-old impregnated her. She fabricated this case to blackmail the family in order not to deport her,” he said.
The 12-year-old was cleared this week of all charges according to the report. It is not yet clear when and if the maid will be deported.
