The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling of the Court of First Instance against an Asian expatriate accused of counterfeiting an official stamp on her marriage certificate.
The Court of First Instance had sentenced the woman to one year in jail and ordered her deportation. However, an upper court later overturned the ruling and suspended the sentence and deportation order, local Arabic daily Al Sharq reported.
The woman had submitted her marriage certificate to the department concerned in Qatar for attestation. However, the employee in charge realised that the stamp attributed to the Qatari embassy in her home country had been counterfeited, according to the daily.
The woman was arrested and further scrutiny of the document confirmed the forgery.
In court, the woman denied any wrongdoing and said she had paid a man (the equivalent of) QR600 in her home country to get her marriage certificate attested because she wanted to use it to get a visit visa for her family members.
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