/ 19 August 2001

EGYPTIAN ON TRIAL FOR HIS MANY MARRIAGES

THE trial of an Egyptian businessman accused of having too many wives and of corrupting under-age girls resumed in Cairo on Saturday. The trial was adjourned until August 22 for Sayed Ragab al-Sawarki (51) a self-professed devout Muslim who was arrested in May on his return to Cairo from a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He is on trial with six others who are charged with helping him forge the documents needed to conclude his many marriages. Sawarki, owner of a chain of clothing shops, allegedly tied the knot with 29 girls under the legal marrying age of 15 by forging documents with the help of 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