He said his ministry was still gathering facts on the issue, adding that the findings would be brought to the state Cabinet for discussions before any amendments are made to existing legislation.
“We are studying the issue of child marriages and if the penalties need to be increased, we will propose it to the state government.
“This amendment will take time because, first, we need to make a proposal before the state attorney-general can draft the law.
“We need to bring it to the state Cabinet and then to the state legislative assembly, which only sits a few times a year,” he said.
Speaking after attending a Hari Raya open house with Sabah Islamic agencies here today, Aidi said for now, the state legislation on Muslim marriages was pretty clear.
“The age limit for men is 18 and for women it is 16. If girls under the age of 16 want to marry, the shariah court’s permission is needed.
“The judge will hear the application and they will not hastily grant the permission,” he said.
He was commenting on the uproar over child marriages following a 41-year-old in Kelantan who took an 11-year-old girl as his bride.
Aidi’s assistant, Jannie Lasimbang, had previously said that Sabah would launch a thorough study on child marriages as this practice was prevalent in the state’s rural areas.
On a shariah lawyer’s suggestion that the age limit for a Muslim girl to marry should be 15, Aidi said that was the lawyer’s personal opinion.
Shariah lawyer Hamid Ismail had courted controversy after proposing that the minimum age for Muslim girls in Sabah to marry be fixed at 15.
He subsequently said the current age limit of 16 should remain but he wanted an age limit of 15 to be put in the Sabah Islamic Family Enactment 2004 as it does not stipulate any age limit now.
‘Disrespect for religions’
On another matter, Aidi said he would propose to the state government that those caught publicly disrespecting places of worship be handed heavier penalties in future.
Recently, two Chinese tourists were fined for dancing at a mosque in Likas, Kota Kinabalu, before they left Sabah.
However, he said visitors should not be barred from visiting the city mosque just because of the actions of the duo.
“We can’t ban tourists from going to the city mosque because it is one of the major attractions in the city. Just because of the two Chinese tourists, we can’t ‘punish’ thousands of others.
“The Chinese tourists were fined RM50 (in total) but not jailed. They should have been jailed one or two days, but I don’t want to comment further because that was the court’s decision.
“But as the law minister, I will suggest to the government that in future, heavier punishment should be given for such offences.”
He said his ministry had instructed the state Islamic Affairs Department (JHEAINS) and the management of mosques in the state to update their standard operating procedure to prevent similar incidents.
The Chinese women tourists — Zhang Na, 25, and Wang Han, 37 — were filmed dancing in an indecent manner at the city mosque here in June. They were slapped with a RM25 fine, or seven days’ jail, each.
Child marriage: Assistant minister snubs lawyer’s proposal for age limit
Sabah condemns ‘disrespectful’ dance by tourists near city mosque