AJMAN, United Arab Emirates, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- An appeals court in the United Arab Emirates has cleared a 12-year-old boy of having sex with his family's Ethiopian maid.
The boy, who lives with his family in the emirate of Ajman, had been given a 6-month jail sentence, Gulf News reported Monday. His conviction was reversed on appeal.
The maid, who is pregnant and expected to have her baby in February, was also sentenced to 6 months. She faces deportation once she completes the sentence.
In his appeal, lawyer Eisa bin Hader argued both that the boy should not have been tried as an adult and that the maid had been impregnated by someone else. Hader accused her of fabricating the story that the boy had sex with her in an effort to pressure his family into preventing her deportation.
Even prosecutors argued the boy was a juvenile, Hader said. He said the Ajman Court of First Instance made the decision to treat him as an adult and to jail him instead of sentencing him to a reprimand and rehabilitation treatment.
