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Top German court says child marriage law must be amended

In this file photo dated Sept 22, 2021, Fraidy Reiss, child marriage survivor and founder of "Unchained at Last" shows a tattoo of a broken chain on her wrist in Boston, Massachusetts. (PHOTO / AFP)

BERLIN — Germany's Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that a law declaring marriages entered into by children under the age of 16 outside of Germany illegal must be amended.

The law must include regulations allowing the marriage to be declared valid once the individual in question has reached adulthood, as well as rules on alimony payments, the court said in a statement.

The law must be amended by June 30, 2024, to bring it in line with the constitution, it added.

READ MORE: Cruel cycle of poverty and child marriage

The case relates to a Syrian couple whose marriage was declared invalid upon their arrival in Germany as refugees. The then 14-year-old girl had married a man seven years her senior in a Sharia court in Syria in 2015.

After arriving in Germany, the teen was separated from her husband and placed in a facility for female refugees.