EGYPTIAN authorities have arrested a man for having five permanent wives – one more than permitted under Islamic law – and for briefly marrying 29 underage girls over the past two years, police said on Thursday. Self-professed devout Muslim Sayed Ragab al-Sawarki, 51, was taken into custody on Wednesday on his return to Cairo from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he had performed a pilgrimage, the police said. Sawarki, owner of a chain of clothing shops, tied the knot illegally with 29 girls under the legal marrying age of 15 by forging documents with the help of two religious officials. He would stay married to them for a matter of hours or days before divorcing them and paying them sums of money, the police said. – AFP