JEDDAH: A female Saudi lawyer was able to get a stay order on a ruling by the general court in Jeddah that awarded custody of a two-year-old girl to her father. She successfully argued to get the court order reversed that gave custody back to the mother after she proved that the father lied to the court and took the girl under false pretense.

The mother explained the details of the incident saying she was divorced and filed a lawsuit to get custody of the child because of her young age, but the father deceived her saying the case had been dropped so she need not attend the sessions. He also promised to take her back.

“I was surprised with the issuance of an absent court order from Jeddah general court that stipulated the taking away of custody of the child and the ruling was implemented by force after it became final. My lawyer presented a plea to reconsider the ruling,” she said.

The lawyer, Bayan Zahran, told local media that the mother came to her crying and asking for a solution, and she was surprised to find out that the ruling was given in absentia and that it acquired a final status.

The man deceived his ex-wife by claiming that the case was over, and promising to take her back while court sessions were ongoing. Meanwhile, he has been attending all court sessions.

She added that after studying the case file and the judicial deed from Shariah and the legal point of view, it appeared that custody cases should take the interests of the child into consideration.

She said a list to reconsider the ruling has been prepared according to Article 202 of the legislative litigation system. “We demanded the stopping of the ruling issued against my client and contested for legal reasons that are related to form and subject matter, the most important of which is the presence of our client to court sessions and her ignorance of these sessions which is a violation of Article 57.

Zahran confirmed that the ruling doesn’t have legal causes to prevent custody of the mother, and the presence of the girl with her father at such an early age is dangerous, because she is in great need of her mother’s care and attention.

After a number of court sessions, the court of appeals decided to reverse the ruling and reconsider the case.