LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) The Lahore High Court has upheld a ruling in Pakistan granting custody of a 13-year Christian girl to a Muslim accused of kidnapping her, forcibly marrying her and converting her to Islam.
Setting aside her parents’ pleas that Nayab Gill was underage and hence could not legally marry or change her religion on her own, Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry on Thursday (July 1) rejected the girl’s official birth documents showing she was 13, said her father, Shahid Gill.
Her Roman Catholic father said the court instead accepted her claim, considered to be made under severe threats of harm to her and her family, that she was 19 years old and married 30-year-old Saddam Hayat, a married father of four children, after converting to Islam of her own free will in Gujranwala on May 20.