Legal: The missing person is considered dead after a year of searching for him by a court ruling

An Arab woman is confused between her missing husband and the promised groom

• Youssef Al-Sharif: “The missing person is the person who is absent and it is not known if he is alive or dead, and all means of communication with him have been cut off.”

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An Arab woman was perplexed when news of her missing husband was cut off in one of the countries currently witnessing a war, and she does not know if he is alive or dead, while her cousin proposed to her family to marry her on the grounds that her husband is dead, inquiring about the legal situation in such cases. In this case, if she accepts the marriage of the promised groom, and it turns out later that her husband is still alive.

This came as part of legal awareness sessions presented by Legal Counsel, Dr. Youssef Al-Sharif, through the pages of "Emirates Today" to shed light on the Personal Status Law and the new articles in it.

Al-Sharif said that he had received a message from a woman saying: “She is from an Arab country, she is 25 years old. She married her cousin, four years ago, and she came to the country with her husband to work and reside.”

The questioner said that her husband met a Ukrainian engineer a year ago, through his work, and provided him with a good job there, and after his travels, he continued to communicate with her always, but when the last war broke out there, he sent her a message on WhatsApp, telling her that he would leave Ukraine, because the situation there is not safe, and since then, you have not known anything about him, whether he is still in this country or whether he left it, and whether he is alive or dead.

She indicated that a cousin had previously had a desire to marry her before her marriage, but this did not happen, and he has recently begun to promote among family and relatives that her husband died during the war in this country, and he will not return, and raises fears for them of her staying alone in exile, which is She was young, and finally asked her to marry her father, which left her in amazement and confusion. How could she marry when she was already married?

She stated that her father told her that he was convinced that her husband was dead, and that she had the right to marry someone else, and that she had to accept her cousin, wondering about the validity of this saying, and could she marry under these circumstances?

What is the legal situation if she accepts the marriage and then it turns out that her husband is still alive?

For his part, Dr. Youssef Al-Sharif confirmed that the law differentiated between the absent and the missing, and the questioner must understand the difference between them, in order to determine her appropriate behavior, and what to do if she agreed to marry, then later found out that her husband was still alive.

Al-Sharif explained that the absent is the person whose location is unknown, and we know that he is alive and communicates with his family by phone or any other means. As for the missing person, he is the person who is absent and does not know if he is alive or dead, and all means of communication with him are cut off.

He pointed out that the questioner says that her husband told her that he will leave Ukraine, but she does not know if he left her or not, so he is missing and not absent, adding that if the missing person overcomes the circumstances of his loss, such as the case of the questioner’s husband in a country where war has spread, she can go Directly to the court and file a case, asking the judge to take measures to search for him, and after a year of losing him, he will be judged as dead, but if he was missing in normal circumstances, meaning not dominated by his death or death, the period would be four years and not a year, and from the date of the ruling as dead, it is considered After the waiting period, she can marry someone else, and if it turns out after that that the missing husband who was sentenced to death is still alive, she will return to him if she was not married or if her second husband did not consummate her, but if he entered, she does not return to her previous husband.

Al-Sharif continued: “But when is it necessary for a woman to return to the first husband, even if the second consort with her?

Responding, this is binding when the second husband knows that the first is still alive and deliberately hides this information from the wife and people in order to achieve his purpose of marrying her, and also the wife returns to the husband sentenced to death if she is within the waiting period in which the judge ruled.

He pointed out that the case is brought by the questioner in the Sharia court in the emirate in which she resides and the litigants are the potential heirs, meaning that assuming that her husband died, in this case she must search for his heirs, so that they are the litigants in the lawsuit.

He stated that if the questioner had children from her husband, she would sue the guardian, if any, or the guardian over them, as the case may be, and this is what Article (12) of the UAE Personal Status Law stipulates that “the litigation, in the event of a judgment ordering the loss of the person, is directed to the potential heirs of the missing person and his agent. , or whoever appointed his representative, and to the Public Prosecution.”

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