Pak couple jailed for lying about husband's sex

Lahore (Pakistan), May 28: A Pakistani court sent a couple to jail for three years today on the grounds that they had lied about the sex of the husband who was a transsexual.

The couple married last year, after the husband had undergone sex-change operations, but a medical team appointed by a high court in the city of Lahore found that the husband, Shumail Raj, 31, was a woman.

''There is sufficient evidence to establish that Shumail Raj is a woman,'' Judge Khawaja Sharif said in his ruling.

He sentenced the couple to jail for three years and imposed a fine of 10,000 rupees each for perjury.

A decision on whether to annul the marriage would be taken at a hearing next month, he said.

Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim nation and sex-change surgery is illegal, a lawyer said.

The two were arrested this month on the orders of the high court.

Raj, who has a beard, told a newspaper last week that his wife, Shezina Tariq, 24, was aware of his sex-change surgery and agreed to marry because she feared being forced to marry someone else.

Raj told a newspaper he had had sex-change surgery twice in Pakistan and hoped to go abroad for another operation.

The case came to the attention of the courts after Raj appealed for protection from harassment by relatives who disapproved of their marriage.

Reuters>