A wealthy Islamic cleric who sparked a national controversy when he announced last year that he had married a 12-year-old girl has been arrested on charges of gross indecency.
Chief Detective Royhardi Siahaan of Semarang, Central Java, said Pujiono Cahyo Widayanto, 43, also known as Syech Puji, faced up to 15 years in jail. Pujiono was suspected of sexual and economic exploitation of a child in breach of Indonesia's Child Protection Law and the Criminal Law.
His father-in-law, Suroso, was also a suspect.
Pujiono, head of an Islamic school, married Lutfiana Ulfa last August, reportedly with the consent of his first wife. After the marriage, Lutfiana left school and was named manager of one of Pujiono's businesses. At the time, he said he planned to marry two more children, aged seven and nine. Activists staged a campaign for the case to be brought to justice. The 1974 marriage law says a girl must be at least 16 to wed.
