Woman faces bigamy charge after younger sister stole her ID to marry boyfriend

A woman in China's eastern Jiangsu province could be charged with bigamy after her sister took her identification card to register her own marriage, mainland media reports.

Until recently, Du Hong was unaware her younger sister, Du Juan, had taken her ID card nine years ago when she wanted to marry her boyfriend, Modern Express reports.

At the time, Juan was below the age of 20, the legal minimum for marriage, so she used the personal information of her sister, who was single and old enough.

Juan married her boyfriend, Tao Wei, in neighbouring Anhui province in 2006. Things went smoothly until Hong, herself now married, received a divorce summons.

It wasn’t her husband who wanted to divorce her, but Tao. The marriage of her younger sister had fallen apart, the report said.

The judge responsible for the case, Xing Jun in Siyang county, said both Hong and Tao were suspected of bigamy. They were married to each other, while also being wedded to their respective partners.

The fraud remained hidden for so many years because marriage registration information was not shared between Jiangsu and Anhui nine years ago, Xing said. The court will open a bigamy case for both Hong and Tao.