Court finds that man was married twice in nine years

A civil court ruled yesterday that when a man, who was charged with bigamy, had contracted marriage in 1993, his previous marriage, in 1984, was still legally binding.

The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri in the case filed by the Attorney General against Olaf Cini and Rosalie Cini née Decelis.

The court heard that in November 1993 Cini had married Amalia Tzaka in Greece when he had married Rosalie Decelis in Malta in September 1984.

Cini was subsequently arraigned on bigamy charges of which he was found guilty. However, in May 1997 the Court of Criminal Appeal annulled the judgment and remitted the case back to the Magistrates' Court.

This latter court had allowed the Attorney General to file civil proceedings before the First Hall of the Civil Court for a decision on the nullity or validity of Cini's first marriage to Decelis.

Both Cini and Decelis pleaded that their marriage was null and void.

Mr Justice Cuschieri noted that it had clearly resulted that Cini and Decelis had married in 1984 and the Public Registry had confirmed that their marriage certificate contained no annotation stating that the marriage had been dissolved by divorce or annulled.

Furthermore, the court noted that neither Cini nor Decelis had produced any evidence to substantiate their allegations of the nullity of their marriage and that such an important decision could not be based upon a balance of probabilities.

The court thus concluded that when Cini had married Tzaka in 1993 his marriage to Decelis was still legally binding.

It also ruled that Decelis ought not to be ordered to pay any of the costs of the litigation as it had been Cini's actions that had given rise to the court proceedings.