Businessman with 19 wives claims Islam allows it

Lawyers for a wealthy Egyptian businessman accused of having more than four wives at once said in their final plea today that their client did not violate Islamic law in any of his 19 marriages.

‘‘This defendant has been hit by the arrows and bullets of the secularists in this country just because he had many wives,’’ defence lawyer Youssri Abdel Rahman told the Cairo court.

‘‘What he did was no novelty, according to what was sanctioned by God and his prophet,’’ added Abdel Rahman, one of 15 defence lawyers on the case.

The case of Ragab el-Suweirky’s marriages has riveted Egypt with its tales of wedding-night divorces and brief unions.

Prosecutors say el-Suweirky, 56, distorted the truth about his marital status to live a life of sin. They have accused him of withholding information about his marital status, tricking a woman into having illicit sex a complaint that’s tantamount to rape and of having one wife more than the four wives sanctioned by Islamic law.

Defence lawyers claim the case against their client, who has been in custody since May 6, is an attempt to destroy a business empire that belongs to a devout believer. El-Suweirky owns a chain of popular clothing stores.

Speaking from behind a caged dock, el-Suweirky, a father of 15, said he married 19 women because he wanted to have many children.

‘‘It is halal,’’ or religiously sanctioned, he said.

The defence argued that Egyptian law is based on different Islamic schools of thought, giving much leeway for interpretation.