Rich Cleric Marries 12 Year Old Girl

While reading the Jakarta post, I read in my opinion a bizarre story where a 43 year old man that is also the head of an Islamic boarding school, named Pujiono Cahyo Widayanto married a girl who was only 12 years old. Puji is a very wealthy man as he is also the owner of PT Sinar Lendoh Terang which exports handicraft. He married 12 year old Lutfiana Ulfa in August with the consent of her parents as well as that of his first wife. The police are now building a criminal case against him as it states in the 1974 marriage law, that a woman must be 16 years of age to legally marry. They are also trying to charge him for breaking child protection law by "forcing, swindling and/or trading" a minor to sleep with him.

All I can say is that this whole thing is ludicrous, why do they even have to debate this? This man is clearly a criminal and in a way, a child abuser. However Puji always uses religious arguments to justify his actions, but in my opinion he is twisting religion to suit his own purpose. The parents of this girl must also take some of the blame. They have admitted that it was due to Pujiono’s wealth that they agreed to the marriage, so they are basically selling their child. If this man is not charged with this crime wouldn’t this mean that Indonesia has made it legal for men to marry children? The craziest thing about all this is that Pujiono has plans to also marry a 7 and 9 year old in the near future.

Sources
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/2768/pujiono-cahyo/

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/28/police-open-criminal-dossier-childmarrying-cleric.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/27/cleric-may-face-criminal-charges-commission.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/25/cleric-defiant-amid-controversy-over-marriage-12yearold-girl.html