Legal News

A Muslim hospital consultant who refused to part with money as part of settlement after divorcing his wife claiming that under Muslim personal law ‘Sharia’ he owed nothing to her, was told by an appeals court that he must pay maintenance to his ex wife as per the rule in this country.
This Appeal Court decision means Dr Al-Saffar will have to pay £60,000 to his former wife, academic Hanan Al-Saffar.
A judge told Dr Zaid Al-Saffar a consultant rheumatologist at Scarborough hospital in North Yorkshire that he must follow ‘the rule in this country’ and share his money.
The ruling is a warning to Muslim couples who believe their marriages were ordered according to ‘sharia’ law and that its jurisdiction lied in Islamic courts.
Lord Justice Ward told Dr Al-Saffar that the rule of this country was that he must share and it starts with equal division. He came out of the marriage without having made his wife any substantial capital payment.
But Dr Al-Saffar married to Hannan al Saffar for eight years with two children said after the case that by playing the system and pretending to be a victim his ex wife got everything, which was not fair. Family law in this country is biased against Muslim people.
The marriage was formalized following the Islamic tradition of Mahr, under which the groom pays a gift to his bride. Because of this, his wife had signed away her share of the couple’s home in Belvedere Road, in Scarborough.
Dr Al-Saffar also assumed he had no obligation to make maintenance payments, and that, following Islamic practice, his former wife’s family would support her.
However, after the marriage fell apart in 2008, a county court judge ordered him to pay £60,000 to his wife in a hearing to settle the legal terms of their break-up. Dr Al-Saffar made payments for only four months but then contested the decision.
Dr Al-Saffar, who represented himself, told the court he had utmost respect for the court’s order, but had stopped paying because all her family were telling him that she’s got millions. She doesn’t need it.
But the judge said the doctor had been determined not to pay because ‘he felt the payments were illegitimate or illegal according to Islamic culture’.
Many cases are settled by sharia courts in Britain and after the marriage dispute is settled an official law court has to approve the arrangement before the divorce is finalized.
The judge must decide whether it is reasonable and ensure neither party is disadvantaged.