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[UNGARAN, Indonesia] - An Indonesian court Tuesday dismissed child abuse charges against a wealthy Muslim cleric who took a 12-year-old girl as his unofficial wife. Chief Judge Hari Mulyanto told the Ungaran District Court in Central Java that the prosecution had failed to prove the cleric sexually abused the girl. "We have accepted the objections of the defendant's lawyer. The charges filed by the prosecutors failed to give details on the defendant's offences," he said. Pujiono Cahyo Widiyanto, 43, from the Central Java city of Semarang, sparked nationwide controversy over his decision to marry the girl, Lutfiana Ulfa, who comes from a poor family. He has defended the arranged and unofficial marriage, his second, on the grounds that the girl had reached puberty. Prosecutors charged the cleric under a 2002 child protection law with forcing or trading a child into sex. The cleric was facing a maximum sentence of 15 years' jail. Indonesian law carries stiff penalties for paedophilia, but unregistered "marriages" between older men and under-age girls are common in rural areas where poor families sometimes sell their daughters to wealthy suitors. National Child Protection Commission Secretary-General Arist Merdeka Sirait condemned the judges' decision and said they should be investigated by the judicial oversight body. "The judges are ... not aware of child protection issues. How could they free a person who took an under-age girl as his wife?" he told AFP. Further information
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