Ambon Religious Court Decision No. 39 of 2011: Irrevocable Divorce Granted Due To Ongoing Conflict & Separation

The parties were married on 16 July 2006. They had no children, despite having already sought both conventional medical and alternative infertility treatment. The plaintiff submitted that the parties' marriage, however, was only harmonious for the first two years. In February 2008, the defendant, a police officer, returned to his original post in Bogor. The parties remained in contact for the first month but from then on the defendant rarely contacted the plaintiff, other than to request that she send him money. For the past three years the parties had remained separated, the defendant providing the plaintiff with no financial or emotional support throughout their time apart.

In February 2010, the plaintiff took leave from work and went to Bogor to ask the defendant why the parties had not been in more regular contact. When the plaintiff arrived in Bogor, however, she discovered that the defendant had remarried. The plaintiff asked the defendant why he had remarried only to be told that the defendant had wished to take the burden off his new wife. The plaintiff submitted that the defendant's response left her feeling bewildered. Accordingly, she requested that the court grant her an irrevocable divorce (talak satu ba'in sughra).

Pursuant to art 19(b) and (f) of Government Regulation No. 9 of 1975, and art 116(b) and (f) of the Compilation of Islamic Laws, the court acceded to the plaintiff's request on the grounds that the parties had been separated for more than two consecutive years, and ongoing conflict.

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