A young man has had the satisfaction of being ruled the son of a Saudi man who has been denying he is the biological father for the last 20 years.

A special court in Yanbu ruled that the young man born in Egypt is related by blood to his Saudi siblings due to their having had the same biological father.

The product of a marriage between an Egyptian woman and Saudi man, the man was said to have lived in the two countries without an identity for the last 20 years, a local daily said.

Following the death of the father, the Saudi brothers continued to deny their kinship with the Egyptian-born sibling and managed to take his share of their father’s properties estimated at millions of riyals, the paper said.

Although the issue of proving the blood relations was settled in a comparatively short period of time, the issue of inheritance (property distribution) remained pending for a long time, the paper said.

The young man’s lawyer, Hussain Al-Thaqaf, said that copies of the ruling were delivered to both parties, but the second party (brothers) still had the right to accept or appeal the verdict.

Giving more details of the issue, Al-Thaqaf said the young man’s father traveled to Egypt more than 36 years ago and married an Egyptian woman but a rift between the couple resulted in his failing to apply for an entry visa to bring her into the Kingdom at the time.

After his death, the young man tried to contact his Saudi brothers for help to prove his kinship, but they rejected his claim, Al-Thaqaf said.

He said that during the court proceedings, the young man’s cousins offered testimonials instead, to confirm their knowledge about the marriage of his father in Egypt in addition to the results of the DNA test which matched with his brothers.

The lawyer said that his client had tried to prove his blood kinship to his Saudi father when he was 17 years old. The Saudi Embassy sent a number of letters to the young man’s Saudi brothers informing them about their brother in Egypt but they continued to deny his existence despite evidence of his birth certificate, divorce document and ID card from the Saudi Embassy.

The lawyer said the ruling included the cancelation of the earlier property distribution document (inheritance) which will have to be re-calculated based on the appearance of the half-brother following the proof of his kinship.