Published in: Khaleej Times
The court, instead, directed him to pay a monthly alimony of Dh10,000 to his ex-wife.
An Abu Dhabi court has rejected the request of a Belgian expat to direct his ex-wife to pay him a monthly alimony of Dh25,000 as he was “unemployed”. The appellate court, instead, directed him to pay a monthly alimony of Dh10,000 to his ex-wife.
This came as the husband and wife challenged a verdict passed by the personal status court in April, when the court directed him to pay Dh5,500 monthly alimony to his ex-wife.
According to court records, the British wife, 48, filed for divorce from the Belgian, 47, on the grounds that they followed different religious faiths. The woman, a legal consultant of a private company in the Capital, said she converted to Islam in February this year but her husband insisted on following his faith. She also sought the custody of their two sons aged 5 and 7.
She also told the court that the husband, who is a partner in a consultancy firm in Abu Dhabi, was not providing for his family. Her lawyer presented a document in court saying the man owned 50 per cent of a company.
The woman requested a Dh36,500 monthly alimony for her and the two children, in addition to cash for electricity and water bills, schoolfees, their maid’s salary, and Dh50,000 worth of furniture. She also told the court that her husband owed her Dh50,000
The man denied his wife’s statements and said that he was unemployed. He sought their children’s custody, claiming his wife was “having an affair”. He claimed she spent “most of her time outside the home, leaving the children without anybody to care of them”.
The man additionally asked that his country’s laws be implemented in the divorce case, and sought alimony.
Awatif Mohammed, a lawyer from Awatif Mohammad Shoqi Advocates & Legal Consultancy, who was representing the woman, told Khaleej Times: “The husband had provided the court with a copy of his country’s law that he wished to be implemented here. But his request was denied because the woman had converted to Islam and the law he provided does not include an article about the continuity of a marital relationship between a Muslim woman and a man of a different religion.”
According to Sharia laws, a Muslim woman cannot be married to a non-Muslim.
According to the latest verdict, the man will have to pay the Dh10,000 monthly alimony from the date of the initial verdict in April.
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