1 November 2004

LUENEBURG - A Pakistani's naturalisation as a German has been revoked after it emerged that he had a wife in each country, court officials said in the northern city of Lueneburg Monday.

Judges said that at the time he gained his citizenship in 1998, he was approaching his 20th wedding anniversary in both nations.

Officials in the city of Braunschweig who later told him to give back his passport said he had failed to meet the legal requirement at the time that he fit in with the German way of life. They said having both a Pakistani wife and a German wife had disqualified him.

Judges rejected his claim that having more than one wife was a German custom. They noted that bigamy was against German law.

On appeal last month, the superior administrative tribunal also rejected his complaint that he would end up stateless if he lost his German papers. He had been obliged to renounce Pakistani citizenship when he applied to become a German.

DPA

Subject: German news