Khaleejtimes, 21 November 2008:

DUBAI - Three Chinese nationals were on Wednesday sentenced to three years in jail after the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance found them guilty of illegally terminating a compatriot woman's pregnancy on April 1 this year.

The three convicts, including a 38-year-old nurse and a couple, both aged 51, will be deported after serving their jail terms.

However, the fourth accused, a 22-year-old salesman, was cleared of the same charge.

The police had arrested the three on April 1 at an apartment in Al Nakheel area in Naf, which was being used as a clinic.

The police had been tipped off by a witness who saw a woman in distress walking out of the apartment. "I was at the clinic with my sister, enquiring about some medicines, when we heard screams," the 34-year-old Iranian salesman said in his testimony.

He added that later they walked out of the building, but soon thereafter they saw the woman who looked very exhausted. Suspecting something wrong, he alerted the police.

During a search of the apartment, the police found a bag with a foetus in it.

According to the forensic report, the foetus was five months old.

The woman admitted that she had illicit relations with her sponsor and after getting pregnant, she wanted to abort the foetus. She, therefore, took the help of the defendants to carry out the abortion, for which she paid them Dh2,300.