Malaysia to annul 200 'fake' Muslim marriages

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Authorities in northern Malaysia plan to annul nearly 200 marriages performed by an imam who allowed Muslim men to secretly take multiple wives, reports have said.

Officials in Kelantan state, the only state in the country that is ruled by a hardline Islamic party, said the imam belonged to a criminal syndicate that charged couples for covert wedding ceremonies.

"The imam is not authorised to solemnise marriages," the director of Kelantan's Islamic affairs department, Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times, adding that 199 couples would be summoned.

"We are tracing them through the addresses provided to the syndicate," Abdul Aziz said.

"Surprisingly, the addresses are correct but nothing about...