(AhlulBayt News Agency) - "I promise to eradicate this tradition once and forever," he told a meeting in the republic's capital Grozny.
Describing the tradition "shameful," he said according to Russian Federation laws, kidnapping was a crime, and Islam condemned enforced marriages and did not recognize a marriage without the true consent of the female.
He added he would sack any police officer found concealing these facts; also, either registry officials or clergy who approved such marriages would be fined a staggering one-million rubles (33,000 U.S. dollars).
A federal draft law, proposing three-year imprisonment for the abduction of brides, was rejected by Russia's Parliament (Duma) in 2008. Under the Russian Criminal Code, abduction is punishable with 15 years of prison term, but the law is not clear on whether kidnapping for marriage is punishable.
/106
