Bigamy， It is NOT a Joke but a Serious Crime

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  文/ 李丹 律师

This is a true story about a UK citizen and this case is the first bigamy case involving a foreigner who is paced on file for investigation and prosecution by Guangzhou police in Guangdong Province. This case may pose a warning to the foreigners who mistakenly believe themselves beyond the reach of Chinese law.

Case Brief:

Jerry and Mary, both UK citizens, have been married for more than 20 years with four children. Mary resigned from work to take better care of the family during the marriage. 

In 2005, Jerry came to China to start his own business as an international transportation agency and Luo Ting, a Chinese girl, was employed for Jerry’s Chinese company. 

In December of the same year, Mary came to China with their elder daughter to visit Jerry’s Chinese company. 

During the talk, Luo Ting knew Jerry and Mary were married with four children.

In October,2006, Jerry came back to UK for a vocation and accidentally, Mary found Jerry’s chat record showing extreme intimacy between Jerry and Luo Ting, who claimed each other husband and wife, and there were lots of wedding pictures and intimate pictures of the two. 

Furthermore, Luo Ting was pregnant and the baby was Jerry’s. Marry kept all the “evidences” and had a good fight with Jerry.

However, Jerry just ignored Mary’s protest and still went on his own way. He had a second child with Luo Ting who gave birth to the two children in Hong Kong as the two had not got married. 

Marry tried to contact Jerry but always reached Luo Ting, who asked Mary to stop harassing her husband Jerry.

Finally, Mary had to retain a Chinese lawyer to report Jerry and Luo Ting’s bigamy crime and the case was officially accepted and established by Guangzhou police early this year. The police took Jerry and Luo Ting into custody for investigation but released Luo Ting on bail as she needs to take care of the babies. 

Mary regretted what she had done and filed application to police to withdraw the accusation. However, there is no way back once the cases was accepted and established by the police for investigation as a crime for it is now a public prosecuting case. 

Mary wrote a pleading letter, claiming she had forgiven her husband and the family needed Jerry and wishing the court will not sanction Jerry for criminal liability. 

The case is still under investigation and Jerry is now released on bail, living temporarily in hotel. It remains unknown whether the case will be forwarded for public prosecution.

(from http://money.163.com/13/0429/18/8TL9EOVI00253B0H_all.html)

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Jerry’s case, as a matter of fact, is not rare in China as more and more foreigners come to China to fulfill their Chinese dreams and live together with partners in China even though the foreigners got married already. 

Foreigners like Jerry have a wrong belief that as long as they do not get married to their Chinese partner, no bigamy exists and even if bigamy exists, it is not a big deal. But this is totally wrong and bigamy is a serious criminal offense under Chinese law. 

Article 158 under Chinese Criminal Code provides that whoever has a spouse and commits bigamy or knowingly marries a person who has a spouse shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than two years or criminal detention. 

In addition, as per Judicial Interpretation issued by Supreme Court on December 14th, 1994, whoever has a spouse lives together with the other person in the name of husband and wife will be punished for bigamy. 

Ever since 1994, Chinese civil law no longer acknowledges de facto marriage while in criminal law, de facto marriage still exists. 

In Jerry’s case, his living together with Luo Ting as husband and wife and the two having children proves the existence of the de facto marriage even if they do not get married by registration. For Luo Ting, she is the one who is well aware that Jerry married but still lives together with Jerry as husband and wife and bore him two children.

For bigamy, the victim has two ways to hold the parties involved responsible for criminal liability, preparing all the evidences and filing the criminal the lawsuit directly at court, accusing the parties involved of bigamy or the victim just goes to the police, reporting the suspected bigamy of the parties involved which will start the police’s investigation and thus enters into the public prosecution area. 

Neither way is easy as the evidences are not so easy to collect. It is hard to tell what evidences will be adopted as sufficient to prove the existence of bigamy, but the child birth certificate, photos of living together and etc are always elementary evidences to start the investigation.

In Jerry’s case, once Jerry is convicted of bigamy and given sentence, he as a foreigner may be expelled from China and would not be allowed to come back to China while Luo Ting, as a criminal, may not be allowed to enter into UK either. 

The two kids will live with Luo Ting alone without seeing the father, if not forever, but for quite a long time. So to all those foreigners who are living and will live in China, always remember that as you are in China, obey the laws and regulations in China. (THE END)

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