year-old employee of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Jizan is on trial at a Shariah court in Al-Masarha for allegedly having six wives. Members of the commission and police caught him with his “sixth” wife in a furnished apartment at Ahad Al-Masarha. Investigations showed he had five other wives. Prince Muhammad Bin Naser Bin Abdul-Aziz, Emir of Jizan, ordered a committee be formed from the Commision of Investigation and Prosecution, police and the municipality of Jizan to probe the authenticity of the report, Al-Watan reported. Muslim men are permitted to marry up to four wives at a time. Shariah law does not allow a Muslim man to marry more than four unless he has divorced one of them. The commission, tipped-off anonymously, found him married to three Saudi women, a 26-year-old illegal resident from Yemen living in Al-Harth and a 22-year-old illegal resident living with her family in Al-Arda. The sixth wife, caught at the apartment is a 22-year-old woman, a legal resident. Only his first three marriage contracts were registered in court. The man had told the police that he divorced his fourth and fifth wife. But the wives denied being divorced and said they were still married to him. Their families also confirmed this. After interrogation the sixth wife also confirmed being legally married to him and said she had no idea that he had a fourth and a fifth wife. The case was referred to the Shariah court in Al-Masarha where witnesses confirmed that the man regularly visited his fourth wife and even celebrated the birth of their child with the slaughtering of a goat. Eyewitnesses said that this proved he was still married to her.
