Wealthy 92-year-old Saudi man banned from marrying child bride

Melbourne, June 16 : A 92-year-old wealthy Arab man has been banned from marrying a poor teenage girl, 75 years younger than him.

The ruling was made under a law designed to prevent wealthy Arabs from the Gulf from hooking young Egyptian girls.

The law also forbids marriage when there is an age gap of 25 years or more.

This unidentified Saudi holidaymaker asked for the hand of the 17-year-old village girl with the lure of a dowry of about 28,000 US dollars and gold jewellery.

"Her parents, who are very poor, accepted,'' The Daily Telegraph quoted a source, as saying.

However, the justice ministry refused the marriage to be registered and cited the legislation brought in during the Gulf oil boom.

But, according to Egypt's Al-Akhbar newspaper, last year the authorities allowed 173 such marriages after the foreign husbands paid the equivalent of 8,000 US dollars into the Egyptian National Bank.

ANI