But when the second marriage broke down, he sought to stay in New Zealand as a refugee, claiming he feared repercussions from the politician back in Sri Lanka, a recent Immigration and Protection Tribunal decision reveals.
However, the man’s account was rejected by his second wife.
She said he duped her into marrying him so he could get a New Zealand visa and then later use it to help his first wife and children also migrate from Sri Lanka.
The estranged pair’s competing stories left the Immigration and Protection Tribunal to decide whether the man had given a credible reason for being married to two women at once, adjudicator Bruce Burson said.
Burson listened first to evidence from the man – identified only as J.C. – then his first wife and his mother.
They all agreed J.C. married his first wife in Sri Lanka in 2010 and that the couple had two children.
They said J.C.’s troubles started in mid-2015 when political posters for an upcoming election were stuck on his Sri Lankan home’s front fence.
J.C. said he tore them off but was later visited by the politician’s supporters, who drew a knife on him.
He tried to report the supporters to police but that led the politician himself to arrive at J.C.’s house that night with between 10 and 15 cars, he said.
The politician accused J.C. of working for a rival political party and pointed the pistol at his head “before forcing the barrel into his mouth”, the man told the tribunal.
The politician advised J.C. to butt out of politics, he said.
Later in 2015, the politician won the election and asked J.C. to pay him a visit, a request J.C. told the tribunal he felt he couldn’t refuse.
J.C. claimed the politician wanted to help a friend who had discovered his daughter having a lesbian relationship that he didn’t approve of.
The father wanted his daughter “out of the country”, J.C. claimed.
The politician told J.C. that if he married the woman and went to New Zealand with her, then his family in Sri Lanka would be taken care of.
J.C. told the tribunal he felt forced to accept.
However, his second marriage ended in New Zealand in 2018 when his new wife missed her former female partner and went back to Sri Lanka to see her, he said.
That left J.C. scared the politician would punish him for not preventing the woman from contacting her old lover, he said.
J.C.’s first wife and mother gave evidence to the tribunal from Sri Lanka that broadly supported his claims.
His wife and mother also claimed that once the second wife returned to Sri Lanka, the politician’s thugs had begun harassing them again.
However, the man’s second wife – identified only as C.C. – rejected J.C.’s version of events.
She said she wasn’t a lesbian and despite claims to the contrary, she had a loving relationship with her father.
She claimed she met J.C. at a friend’s wedding in 2014 and married him in late 2015, but was unhappy in the marriage due to physical and emotional abuse.
She said she was also unhappy to discover J.C. was already married to another woman and had used her laptop to send money to his other wife.
She searched Sri Lanka’s official records and found a marriage certificate she claimed proved J.C. had not married his other wife in 2010, but in 2015 – the same year he had married her.
She then launched court action to nullify her bigamous marriage.
Burson ultimately ruled it was this account by J.C.’s second wife that was most credible and supported by documents.
He said J.C., his first wife and his mother had at times provided contradictory evidence.
He also had doubts about J.C.’s marriage certificate showing the marriage to his first wife had taken place in 2010.
Therefore, Burson said, the most credible account was that J.C. duped his second wife into a bigamous marriage with the ambition of getting a visa so he could later bring his first wife and children to New Zealand.
Burson consequently rejected J.C.’s application for refugee status.
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