"I had to marry her off because she was raped."

Those were the words of the father of a 13-year-old who was recently divorced with 'talak tiga' (third pronouncement) by her 20-year-old husband, Mohd Fahmi Mohamed Alias.

Following the couple's divorce which went viral in the media, the girl's father, Saad Mustafa, 44, in an exclusive interview with an English daily, said he had agreed for the couple's marriage because his daughter was allegedly gang-raped by Mohd Fahmi and his two friends, four months before the wedding took place.

Saad said the case was reported to the police on July 15 last year but Mohd Fahmi’s parents had approached him daily, begging him to withdraw the report as they did not want their son to be punished and jailed.

He said as a father, he understood their concern and had agreed to withdraw his report and subsequently arranged for the couple's wedding on Nov 17.

However, he said his daughter told him in October this year that she could no longer tolerate the abuse by her in-laws and decided to sought for divorce.

Saad claimed, Mohd Fahmi’s family never liked his daughter from the beginning and she was often physically abused and not given food.

Mohd Fahmi, however, denied his father-in-law's accusations and told the daily that he only had sex with his wife after they were married.

In the interview, Mohd Fahmi claimed he had divorced his wife because she was having an affair with a man from Kuala Ketil, Kedah.

He also claimed that his wife was rude to his family, never cooked and often left their home whenever she was unhappy about something.

He further denied the allegation that that his family had abused his wife and did not feed her.

Mohd Fahmi claimed that despite his wife's poor attitude, his family had always taken good care of her.