Family joy as unmarried sex couple freed in Abu DhabiA student and a waitress jailed for sex outside marriage have been freed because they got married.

The couple, still in their prison uniforms, were married in the Abu Dhabi court building last week before being re-shackled and taken back to their cells. The pair, both in their early twenties, were freed yesterday after the court accepted the pair are now newlyweds.

“We are so happy,” the father of the Syrian student told . “They are both young and have their whole lives ahead of them. They made a mistake and now they can move on.”

The Syrian’s mother interrupted the court hearing yesterday to say she had documents to prove that her son had married the Filipina waitress. She said her son had university exams coming up and begged the court to free him.

An Egyptian friend of the Syrian defendant wept throughout the hearing and said she was delighted when the judge announced the pair would be freed.

The court has yet to rule whether the couple will be convicted of having unmarried sex. However, a court source said the case is often dropped when a couple agrees to marry. The two met when the Filipina was working as a waitress in a major Abu Dhabi hotel. The Syrian, an IT student, struck up a conversation with her and got her phone number.

The pair started seeing each other in secret and had a sexual relationship. She became pregnant but had a miscarriage two months ago. He rushed her to Abu Dhabi’s Al Noor hospital, where staff reported the case to police.

The pair spent one month and 22 days in jail before the judge agreed to free them on Wednesday.