Okaz/Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — The Jeddah Personal Status Court issued a verdict on Monday, proving the lineage of a twin girl child to her father and ordering him to add her to the family registry. The court rejected the claims of the father that his wife gave birth to the child before their marriage and that she is 18 months older than her twin brother.
The court ordered the father to extract identification papers for the girl child after establishing his parentage of the child with substantial evidence.
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Personal Status Court’s ruling. The court also instructed the concerned ministries and government agencies to enforce the ruling by all the available legal means, including the use of coercive force by the police.
Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learned from sources that the woman filed a lawsuit before the court asking to prove her daughter’s lineage to her father. The husband responded to the lawsuit, pleading that the child in question is not his daughter.
He claimed that the date of birth of the girl mentioned in the lawsuit is incorrect and she is not a twin. He justified this by producing photographs showing the girl being 18 months older than her twin brother, claiming that her birth took place before his marriage to the plaintiff.
In his testimony to the court, the husband added that he did not see the newborn until after the birth of his male child, one year and four months. He pointed to the age difference between the twins. He expressed suspicions about the newborn girl’s disappearance after birth.
The man also pointed out that his wife and her family informed him four months after the birth of his male son that there was another girl child, and that she was a “twin” of the boy child. They claimed that they hid the girl child for fear of non-acceptance.
The medical reports presented by the husband to the court showed that the wife had given birth to a male child, and the wife stated in her answer that she had given birth to the female child at her home and then went to the hospital to give birth to the male child.
He challenged this by stating that it is illogical and impossible for a woman to give birth to twins in two different places, especially since her birth was natural, as well as the age difference between the twins.
The husband submitted medical reports showing that his wife entered a hospital and gave birth to a male child and left three days later. He also attached the entire birth file of his male child.
The father also submitted a medical note to the court regarding the formation of twins, the fertilization of eggs and the placenta that have one umbilical cord, and the impossibility of giving birth in two different places.
In a later session, the father submitted a memorandum requesting that the birth file be summoned from the hospital and refer the girl to the medical authority to verify the age difference, and sign the necessary medical examination to verify the age of the girl and the bone test that indicates the age difference between the twin boy and the girl in question.
The woman responded to the lawsuit by emphasizing that what the husband said was not true, and that the child in question is a daughter of her husband. The court ordered an in-person session of the spouses during which the plaintiff showed videos and pictures of conversations with her husband, who acknowledged some of them and denied some others.
After examining the pleadings, the court ruled that delaying the denial of the lineage of the newborn girl child would be deemed as his acknowledgment of the parentage, stating that the stay of the newborn with the husband for several months is the clear evidence of his acknowledgment of it. The court ruling was also based on the opinions of scholars on the issue.
When the wife highlighted in a video clip of her talking about the child with her husband, the court ruled that the lineage of the born child to her father was established. Accordingly, the court ordered the extraction of identification papers for her and adding her to the family registry.
