RIYADH, 12 March 2004 — A court has found a local woman guilty of bigamy and sentenced her father to jail. The woman had married her second husband while her first husband was away on business.
She had been married to the first husband for a couple of months when marital problems surfaced and her husband divorced her. But the couple reconciled, only to run into even more severe problems.
Under Islamic law, a husband can revoke a divorce within a waiting period of about three months.
The husband said his wife left him while he was out of the city on business for two months, and a relative later told him his wife had married again.
The judge who had registered the divorce and reconciliation of the couple summoned the woman’s father, who admitted to giving his daughter away again and pocketing a SR40,000 dowry.
The court declared the second marriage void, ordered the dowry returned, and sentenced the father to prison. However, the husband obtained a final divorce.
In a final twist, the father died in a traffic accident before the jail sentence could be carried out.
