A Praslinois woman was convicted of bigamy last week after marrying a second man without divorcing her deported first husband.

The 20-year-old woman, who was also convicted of making a false declaration to a civil status officer, was fined R2,600 for both counts.

According to State Counsel Joel Camille, the woman first got married in 2001 to an Indian national, but after his deportation, she went on to wed a second man, this time from Madagascar, in May of this year.  The Malagasy man has also since been deported.

It appeared, Mr Camille said, that the woman assumed her marriage had been annulled after her first husband was deported, and the civil status officer who filed the paperwork for her second marriage did not detect the records of her previous marriage.

Mr Camille said the courts in Seychelles have not seen a case of this nature recently, but indicated that some veteran prosecutors had recalled similar incidents quite some time ago.

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