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SINGAPORE: A 36-year-old woman was jailed for 12 weeks on Friday (Dec 19) after pleading guilty to bigamy, which is illegal in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy also lied to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority that she did not have children. This charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.<\/p>\n
In 2008, when Nguyen was 19, she married a 54-year-old Singaporean man who was 35 years her senior. Their marriage was registered in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Sometime around 2012, Nguyen returned to Vietnam for medical treatment.<\/p>\n
While there, she met and started a romantic relationship with a Vietnamese man three years older than her.<\/p>\n
Nguyen largely stayed in Vietnam during this time.<\/p>\n
She and the Vietnamese man knew that they would not be able to register a marriage in Singapore as Nguyen had a husband there.<\/p>\n
But as Nguyen was already pregnant with the man’s child, they went ahead and registered their marriage in Vietnam on Jul 28, 2015.<\/p>\n
After that, Nguyen continued to stay in Vietnam and would only come to Singapore to renew her long-term visit pass application.<\/p>\n
In 2016, she came to Singapore to initiate a divorce with the Singaporean man. Their marriage was dissolved on Nov 3, 2017.<\/p>\n
Her second marriage was dissolved in Vietnam on Mar 9, 2018.<\/p>\n
Court documents did not contain details on how the bigamous marriage was discovered by authorities.<\/p>\n
The prosecution sought three months’ jail for Nguyen.<\/p>\n
Nguyen, who did not have a lawyer, cried as she spoke to the court through an interpreter.<\/p>\n
She said she was now a single mother of a 10-year-old boy who needed her around to care for him.<\/p>\n
She also said her family faced difficulties as her father suffers from partial paralysis and her mother is elderly.<\/p>\n
“I’m the pillar of strength in the family, (to) take care of my family financially and emotionally,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So I hope for leniency not only to take care of my son but to take care of my parents as well.”<\/p>\n
The judge said he would give Nguyen a slightly lighter sentence than what the prosecution had asked for.<\/p>\n
Bigamy carries a punishment of up to seven years in jail and a fine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n