Activists want the government to keep its promise to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage.

Ex-UN member urges the police of both countries to take legal action against 41-year-old

BANGKOK: The marriage of a Malaysian man to an 11-year-old Thai girl in Narathiwat province clearly violated Thai laws, says a former UN committee member on the Rights of the Child.

Sanphasit Koompraphant urged the police of both countries to take legal action against the 41-year-old Malaysian man.

The man would have committed criminal offence if he had sex with the child, or any other under the age of 13, he added.

“The (sexual) act violates the law as he would be considered as raping the child, no matter if it was with or without the child’s consent,” he said as reported by The Nation/ ANN.

Punishment is more than 10 years in jail under Thai law.

Sanphasit was responding to a report that the Malaysian man had gone across the border from Gua Musang, Kelantan, to the Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat province, to have the marriage solemnised on June 18.

The news went viral last weekend when the man’s second wife vented her frustration on social media.

The groom said he was engaged in a suspended marriage and that they would only be living together when his bride had turned 16.

According to Sanphasit, the man could also be charged with child abuse under the Child’s Protection Act.

Referring to reports that the girl’s parents had permitted the marriage or were present at the ceremony, Sanphasit said that they, too, would have committed crime for allegedly failing to properly raise their child and exposing the child to the risk of becoming pregnant before the proper age.

“If the parents received endowment (payment) from the man, they would have violated the Antihuman Trafficking Act as they would have handed over the child to wed the man for monetary benefit,” he said.

The groom already has two wives and six children.

One of his children is a friend of the child bride, who has never been to school.

The “husband” believes that he had not committed any offence under Islamic law as he had sought advice from religious authorities in southern Thailand.

Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the marriage was illegal because it had not received the consent of the Malaysian Syariah Court as the girl was under the minimum legal age for marriage.

According to the Malaysian Islamic Family Law Enactment, the minimum legal age for marriage is 18 for a male and 16 for a female (though the Syariah Court can make exceptions).

National Human Rights Commission member Angkhana Neelapaijit said that this was not the first (such) case, as Malaysians who wanted to wed underaged girls usually came to Thailand to do so.

In Kota Baru, SIRA HABIBU reported Kelantan Welfare Department director Said Sidup as saying that the child bride wasn’t perturbed by the intense public attention on her.

“A psychologist visited the child at her home in Gua Musang on July 2 and proceeded with psychological support intervention.

“The child co-operated well during the session, and displayed normal behaviour, for now,” he said in an interview.

Said Sidup attributed the child’s ability to face the situation well to parental support and family love.

“The child understood the situation (she is in),” he said.