Mother freed in Dubai adultery case

A BRITISH mother jailed in the United Arab Emirates for adultery was released yesterday.

Marnie Pearce, 40, was handed a three-month prison sentence after a Dubai court ruled that she had cheated on her Egyptian ex-husband, Ihab El Labban.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that Pearce, originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, left jail yesterday.

The supply teacher, who lost custody of her sons, Laith, eight, and Ziad, four, last month, had faced deportation on her release from prison.

However, this has now been put on hold while she fights to win back her children.

Pearce was imprisoned in February and held in the women’s section of Dubai Central Jail in Al Awir. She launched two appeals against her conviction, but both were unsuccessful.

She met her ex-husband in Oman and the couple married in the Seychelles in September 1999.

However, their marriage eventually broke down and, in March last year, she was arrested and accused of committing adultery with a British man whom she insists was only a friend.

Pearce, who protests her innocence, was found guilty of adultery by a Dubai court in November and lost appeals against her conviction in January and March.

Her release was welcomed by Amnesty International, but the charity said that yesterday’s news was “far from the end of this story”.

Pearce is now expected to apply for access to her two boys.

British campaigns director Tim Hancock said: “It’s welcome news that Marnie Pearce has been released. She should never have been imprisoned in the first place. But her release is far from the end of this story.

“Marnie’s suffering will continue as she cannot yet see her sons and she does not know if she will be able to see them again.

“We understand that the deportation order has been suspended to allow Marnie time to apply for access to her children.”