DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
In the latest twist in the ten-year divorce saga of Egyptian actress Hala Sedqi, her ex-husband said he will sue the church and her witnesses in an effort to clear his name after Sedqi accused him of cheating.
The Christian couple fought for years to be allowed to divorce by the church. Sedqi, 46, has since re-married, but her ex-husband still wants to prove that he is not an adulterer.
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, headed by Pope Shenouda III, allowed Sedqi to divorce and re-marry only after she "proved" her ex-husband Magdi William had committed adultery.
William's lawyer, Mamdouh Ramzi, said Sedqi and four witnesses told church officials that William had married another woman in Lebanon in an Islamic ceremony – which the Christian officials said amounted to adultery.
But Ramzi told Al-Arabiya.net said he will sue the witnesses and the church for fraud, since the witnesses did not actually see William commit adultery – a requirement to prove adultery under Muslim family law.
The high-profile divorce case has triggered a strong backlash in Egypt's Coptic community, as the Church rarely grants couples the right to separate, let alone marry a second time.
According to church law, divorce can be granted in rare circumstances – including adultery. But the church strips the adulterer of the right to ever re-marry and requires the victim to obtain special permission before marrying a second time.
Besides adultery, the Church also permits divorce in cases where the bride lies about her virginity or the husband is impotent.
Five months after their wedding, William filed for divorce claiming that, contrary to their marriage contract, Sedqi was not a virgin. But his petition was rejected on the grounds that he should have appealed within one month of the marriage, according to Christian family law.
The divorce case was pending in court for nine years until Sedqi changed her Christian denomination from Orthodox to Syriac, so she could file suit under Muslim family laws.
Egypt allows Muslim law to apply to Christians couples if the parties belong to different denominations.
After the divorce was granted, Sedqi went back to the Orthodox Church.
In a statement to the Egyptian daily Al-Badeel, Sedqi's lawyer Labib Moawad, said that she did not get church permission until she brought her case before an expert commission that specializes in examining requests for second marriage permits.
"This commission studies each case separately. If the petitioner was the aggrieved party in the first marriage, the permit will be granted. This was exactly the case with Hala," he added.
Sedqi has acted in more than 30 movies and starred in several hit TV series. She won the Best Actress Award from the Cairo International Festival and has recently finished filming the movie, "Young Alexander the Great" in which she plays Olympias, Queen of Macedonia.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
