CAIRO: In a new effort by the Egyptian Ministry of Family and Population, with the cooperation of the Attorney-General, to combat underage marriage, the country’s Attorney General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, referred five men to a criminal court this week and demanded an urgent trial on charges of “sexual exploitation and facilitating the sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old girl from Tamoh village in the 6th of October Governorate. The list of the 5 persons involved in this incident includes the husband, a Saudi citizen and the parents of the child as well as the marriage broker and the lawyer who endorsed the marriage contract.

The prosecution is also investigating reports that a Saudi man asked the broker to find him a girl between 12- and 15-years-old to marry and that the broker had nominated 7 girls. He then chose his “wife,” who was not older than 14-years-old and the Saudi paid her father 10,000 Egyptian Pounds ($1,875) in return for the marriage, while the broker and lawyer were each paid 2,000 pounds ($380).

The investigation added that the victim contacted her parents after the marriage and threatened to commit suicide if they do not take action to save her from the Saudi husband, who, according to the young girl, forces her to approve “abnormal sexual practices.” The prosecution said the medical report proved that the child has already experienced sexual abuse and “deviant practices by force.”

Prosecutors revealed during the investigations of a similar incident of a girl from Giza, who was to be married in 5 days in a similar manner and the prosecution continues investigations, while the Attorney General has issued strict instructions to address this phenomenon and to deal with it “decisively.”

Mahmoud had earlier revealed that there were an estimated 9,351 under-age marriages in the country, with the vast majority of them taking place in Cairo. His statement comes as the Ministry of Family and Population’s continues its efforts to combat under-age marriage, reporting such cases and prosecuting any Islamic notary, or ma’azoon, who marries underage girls.

Mahmoud said his office is attempting to track down and arrest those notaries who disobey the law, which states the legal age of marriage is 18-years-old.

His statements come after his office, in coordination with the ministry, gave orders to inspect and review the work of all notaries working in Egypt.

It should be noted that both the modified Child Law 126 of 2008 and article 31 of Law 143 of 1994, on Civil Status, proclaim that no marriage contract “may be documented to those who have not reached the legal age of 18, for both sexes, with no prejudice to any criminal penalty provided by another law shall be punished by disciplinary for anyone who documented marriage in contravention of the provisions of this Article, the notary who contravenes this requirement, as well as holding him accountable for disciplinary reasons, and shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding 500 pounds,” according to Article 227 of the Penal Code.

BM

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