
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150706
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BANGKOK, THAILAND                                LENGTH: Short

ITALIAN PROTESTS WIFE ISN'T `GENUINE FEMALE'

An Italian businessman has asked a court to annul his 8-month-old marriage to a Thai after learning his wife had a sex change operation and was not a "genuine female."

Paolo Adoado Boeris, 27, petitioned the Bangkok Civil Court on Wednesday to annul his marriage to Riem Kuemjan, 26, of Phrae province in northern Thailand, according to court records seen today.

Boeris said he came to Thailand last May as a tourist and fell in love with Riem. They were married in Bangkok on June 4.

"The Italian later learned the truth that his wife was not of genuine female sex, but a man who had undergone a sex change into a woman," the petition says.

The petition said Riem acknowledged having the operation, but the document did not say when the surgery took place.

Riem is serving a prison term for drugging and robbing another tourist and for having a forged Thai national identity card, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.

-Associated Press

by CNB