The Founder and Leader of Easy Gate Chapel International, Pastor Emmanuel Kusi-Agyarku, has been convicted by the Accra Circuit Court for bigamy and fictitious marriage.

Pastor Kusi-Agyarku was subsequently fined GH¢300 on each of the charges. In default, he will go to jail for six months on each of the charges.

The court, presided over by Ms Selina Agbemaya, handed down the sentence on Thursday after the pastor had pleaded guilty to the offence.

The convict told the court that he had committed the offence to secure travelling documents to the United States of America.

To obtain the documents, he said, he had to mingle with some couples at a wedding ceremony, during which he caused photographs to be taken to facilitate the processing of his new marriage.

The court rejected his explanation and convicted him accordingly.

According to the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ms Sarah Acquah, the complainant was Mrs Philomena Kusi-Agyarku, a trader in Accra.

Ms Acquah said the convict and his wife, who have two children aged nine and seven, married under the ordinance at the Accra Community Centre in 2002.

On October 20, 2008, a misunderstanding arose between the two and they separated. Their differences were, however, later resolved.

According to the prosecutor, on November 22, 2009 the convict contracted another marriage between him and one Akua Grace, who is domiciled in the US.

Mrs Kusi-Agyarku, on hearing about the marriage, reported the matter to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service at Dansoman in Accra for investigations.

Ms Acquah said the convict was charged with the offence after investigations had revealed that he had, indeed, committed the offence.