British mother faces jail in Dubai on adultery charge
Marnie Pearce, 40, believes she will now go to jail and have her two young sons taken away.
Dubai’s appeal court upheld her conviction but cut her prison sentence from six to three months yesterday.
She was also ordered to pay a fine of 3,000 dirhams (€628) and will be deported, the foreign and commonwealth office said.
Speaking from Dubai by telephone, she said: “My children are going to be taken from me and I am just waiting for the police to come.”
Pearce, originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, was found guilty of adultery by a Dubai court in November after being accused of cheating on her Egyptian ex-husband. She insisted she was innocent and remained on bail while she attempted to overturn her conviction.
Pearce met her ex-husband in Oman and married him in the Seychelles in September 1999.
They had two children, Laith, seven, and Ziad, four, and moved to Dubai, but their marriage broke down.
In March last year she was arrested and accused of committing adultery with a British man who she insists was only a friend.
Amnesty International voiced concern that the adultery charge was brought as part of a row over custody of the couple’s children.
Kate Allen, Amnesty’s British director, said: “If allegations are true and adultery charges were being brought to influence a custody battle, it would be deeply worrying... Custody should be a separate, civil matter where the children’s best interests come first.
“Criminalising the sex lives of consenting adults is never right, let alone using this to back up family laws which already discriminate against women.
“If Ms Pearce is jailed, Amnesty would consider her a prisoner of conscience who should be released immediately.”
