was arrested after the shocked wife discovered the deception, police
said Friday.
Suwarti, who like many Indonesians goes by one name,
was detained Thursday after the wife alerted authorities, several
months after the pair tied the knot in a ceremony on Java island.
The
wife, Heniyati, became suspicious when her ‘husband’ refused to
consummate the marriage.Suwarti has admitted to the deception and could
face up to seven years in prison for falsifying her identity, according
to local chief detective Muhamad Kariri.
‘She falsified all the documents for the marriage… My family and I
were deceived. We feel so embarrassed,’ Heniyati, 25, told the Jakarta
Post newspaper.
All Suwarti would say is that she had been disappointed by a previous
marriage, from which she had a 17-year-old child, Kariri added.
When
they met, 40-year-old Suwarti gave herself the male name Muhamad Efendi
Saputra and said she was a police officer.After a whirlwind romance
lasting a couple of months, the pair married late last year in their
home district of Boyolali, with Suwarti reportedly even hiring people to
pretend to be her male alter ego’s relatives at their wedding.
After
several months of married life, Heniyati finally discovered an identity
card in Suwarti’s wallet showing who she really was, said Kariri.