Parents of 13-year old victim of child marriage arrested

The parents of the 13-year old child who was subjected to child marriage and recently gave birth to child from the out of court marriage has been arrested.

Police stated that the parents of the six children were arrested under a court order. The parents are subject to an investigation underway by the authorities for neglecting and preventing the children of basic fundamental rights such as vaccinations, education in the name of radical extremist religious ideologies.

Police stated that a man of 47 years and a woman of 36 were arrested around 16:30 yesterday.

The 13-year old child subjected to child marriage recently gave birth before she and her seven siblings including the child that she gave birth to were taken into state custody on December 2, 2019. The girl had been subjected to child marriage by her family to a 26-year old man who harbored extremist ideology.

The case of the child marriage was first discovered and reported by “Sun” in the aftermath of a violent altercation between people with extremist ideology on a boat on November 21, 2019. One of the men named Ismail Hammaad, who was attacked on the boat with a knife by a crew member was the “husband” of the 13-year old child. He has now been arrested for raping a minor after receiving treatment at the hospital for the attack.

A previous statement by the Police and Gender Ministry stated that the institutions had received reports of the family who deprived the children of education and medical treatment on June 6, 2018. Police also stated that the case was monitored and steps were being taken in the case by the authorities since then.

At a news conference on December 2, 2019, Superintendent of Police Mohamed Haneef stated that the decision to keep the child with her family back then was based on the reasoning that since her father was in jail, it was her mother only who could assist and help her. The five children who were all younger than the 13-year old girl were also being cared for by her mother, according to Police.

Police also confirmed that the DNA of the newborn of the 13-year old matched Hammaad, but also stated that they could not confirm if the girl was married in any way.