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LAGOS, Nigeria — The recent wedding of one of the Muslim leaders who brought Shariah law to Africa’s most populous nation is under scrutiny as human-rights groups say he married a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.
Sen. Ahmad Sani Yerima, 49, arranged the marriage with the girl after paying her family a $100,000 dowry, according to a complaint filed by the Nigerian Human Rights Commission in April.
Initially, Yerima couldn’t arrange a visa for the girl to travel from Egypt to Nigeria, so he instead brought the girl through neighboring Niger, said Chidi Odinkalu, a lawyer who works for the Open Society Justice Initiative.
That leaves Yerima open to human-trafficking charges as well as possible child-sex and endangerment charges, the lawyer said.
