KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysian authorities are investigating the marriage between an 11-year-old Thai girl and a 41-year-old Malaysian Muslim, including elements of possible “sexual grooming” in the case, the deputy prime minister said Monday.
The case has sparked public outrage and widespread calls for child brides to be banned in the predominantly Muslim country.
Rubber scrap dealer Che Abdul Karim Che Abdul Hamid was believed to have secretly married the girl — a Thai citizen who lives with her parents in Malaysia — as his third wife in Thailand, and the union became public after one of his wives lodged a complaint with police.
Muslim girls under the minimum legal marriage age of 16 can wed with the consent of the Shariah court and their parents in Malaysia. Muslim men in Malaysia can marry four wives.
Thai law sets the minimum legal age for marriage at 17, though courts may allow marriage for younger individuals if there is an appropriate reason. The reasons, however, are not defined in the law.
Although the marriage has caused outrage on social media among Thais, Thai government spokesmen said they were unaware of the case.
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said there was no record of the marriage in Malaysia and no evidence yet that it had taken place. She said any such marriage would be invalid because consent hadn’t been sought nor given by Malaysia’s Shariah court.
“My officers are working with other local enforcement agencies to look further into this case. This includes whether there are elements of sexual grooming between the man and this girl before the supposed marriage. This is an offense” criminalized last year, Wan Azizah told a news conference.
Photos on social media showed the groom holding the girl’s hand after the marriage ceremony. Malaysian media said Che Abdul Karim, who is also an imam in a rural village in northeast Kelantan state, already has two wives and six children aged 5 to 18.
Che Abdul Karim told Malaysia’s Bernama news agency on Sunday that his marriage was lawful and had been approved by the girl’s parents, who are Thai citizens who live and work in Kelantan as rubber tappers. He has said he will only formalize the marriage in Malaysia when the girl turns 16 and that she will stay with her parents until then. The girl was also quoted by local media as saying that she loves Che Abdul Karim because he is a kind man.
Wan Azizah, however, said, “Consent of a child under 12 years old is not consent” under the law.
The deputy prime minister said an initial investigation showed that the girl, who doesn’t attend school, was wooed twice, and that her mother had told the man the girl was too young and asked for the marriage to be consummated only when she turns 16. She said the man promised to help the family financially.
The government will send in doctors to examine the girl and provide her counseling to help her cope, Wan Azizah said.
The government is “committed to ending child marriage” and is looking into raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18, including ensuring there are strict conditions before Shariah courts can give consent for minors to wed, she added.
Paveena Hongsakul, a Thai women and children’s rights activist, said she believed that cases where parents give away their children in exchange for something could be considered human trafficking.
Paveena, founder and chairwoman of her own foundation, said that any young child asked by her parents to get married would agree out of filial devotion. She said her foundation has dealt with kids who have entered into prostitution because their parents told them to do so.
The UN children agency called the latest case of child marriage “shocking and unacceptable.” The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia expressed concern that allowing child marriage in the name of religion might “provide cover for pedophiles and child sexual predators.”
The National Human Rights Society said government data showed there were as many as 15,000 Malaysian child brides in 2010 and called for laws to criminalize child marriage to protect minors.
Malaysia investigates marriage of man to 11-year-old girl
Malaysia investigates marriage of man to 11-year-old girl
- The government is committed to ending child marriage and is looking into raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18
- The UN children agency called the latest case of child marriage shocking and unacceptable
US senators visit key Ukrainian port city as they push for fresh sanctions on Russia
- The visit and the push for Congress to take up sanctions on Russia come at a crucial moment in the conflict
WASHINGTON: A delegation of US senators was returning Wednesday from a trip to Ukraine, hoping to spur action in Congress for a series of sanctions meant to economically cripple Moscow and pressure President Vladimir Putin to make key concessions in peace talks.
It was the first time US senators have visited Odesa, Ukraine’s third-most populous city and an economically crucial Black Sea port that has been particularly targeted by Russia, since the war began nearly four years ago. Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal and Sheldon Whitehouse made the trip. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis had planned to join but was unable to for personal reasons.
“One of the things we heard wherever we stopped today was that the people of Ukraine want a peace deal, but they want a peace deal that preserves their sovereignty, that recognizes the importance of the integrity of Ukraine,” Shaheen said on a phone call with reporters.
The visit and the push for Congress to take up sanctions on Russia come at a crucial moment in the conflict. Delegations for the two sides were also meeting in Switzerland for two days of US-brokered talks, but neither side appeared ready to budge on key issues like territory and future security guarantees. The sanctions, senators hoped, could prod Putin toward settling for peace, as the US has set a June deadline for settlement.
“Literally nobody believes that Russia is acting in good faith in the negotiations with our government and with the Ukrainians,” Whitehouse said. “And so pressure becomes the key.”
Still, legislation to impose tough sanctions on Russia has been on hold in Congress for months.
Senators have put forward a range of sanction measures, including one sweeping bill that would allows the Trump administration to impose tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russia’s oil, gas, uranium and other exports, which are crucial to financing Russia’s military. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has also advanced a series of more-targeted bills that would sanction China’s efforts to support Russia’s military, commandeer frozen Russian assets and go after what’s known as Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers being used to circumvent sanctions already in place.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has co-sponsored the Senate’s sweeping sanctions and tariff legislation, also released a statement during the Munich Security Conference this weekend saying that Senate Majority Leader John Thune had committed to bringing up the sanctions bill once it clearly has the 60 votes needed to move through the Senate.
“This legislation will be a game changer,” Graham said. “President Trump has embraced it. It is time to vote.”
Blumenthal, who co-sponsored that bill alongside Graham, also said there is bipartisan support for the legislation, which he called a “very tough sledgehammer of sanctions and tariffs,” but he also noted that “we need to work out some of the remaining details.” Democrats, and a handful of Republicans, have been opposed to President Donald Trump’s campaign to impose tariffs around the world in an effort to strike trade deals and spur more manufacturing in the US
In the House, Democrats are opposed to the tariff provisions of that bill. Instead, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, has proposed separate legislation that makes it more difficult for Trump to waive sanctions, but does away with the tariff provisions.
A separate bill, led by the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, would bolster US military support for Ukraine by $8 billion. Democrats currently need one more Republican to support an effort to force a vote on that bill.
Once they return to the US, the senators said they would detail how US businesses based in Ukraine have been attacked by Russia. The Democrats are also hoping to build pressure on Trump to send more US weapons to Ukraine. “Putin understands weapons, not words,” Blumenthal said.
Still, the lawmakers will soon return to a Washington where the Trump administration is ambivalent about its long-term commitments to securing peace in Ukraine, as well as Europe. For now, at least, they were buoyed by the conversations from their European counterparts and Republican colleagues.
“We and the Republican senators who were with us in Munich spoke with one voice about our determination to continue to support Ukraine,” Coons said.
