(Times of Malta) A man who married a 15-year-old girl in Syria and conceived their first child in Malta a year later has been found guilty of participating in sexual activities with a minor.
He was spared jail but handed a three-year probation order after the court said it needed to send a message that “such marriages should be avoided.”
Police were alerted to the case in 2021 when they received a report from the International Protection Agency flagging concerns that the girl might have been trafficked and forced into marriage.
She was called in for questioning that March and arrived at the station with her husband. Through a translator, she explained that they married in Syria in 2019 with their families’ approval.
