CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE ACT compelled to answer by reason that his answer might have a tendency to expose him to any pains, penalty, punishment or forfeiture or to a criminal charge or to degrade his character: Provided that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this section, an accused person called as a witness on his own application in accordance with section two hundred and fortyeight may be asked any question in cross-examination, notwithstanding that it would tend to incriminate him as to the offence charged against him K. Special rules of evidence in particular cases 298 Evidence on charge of treason On the trial of a person charged with treason, evidence shall not be admitted of any overt act not alleged in the indictment, unless relevant to prove some other overt act alleged therein. 299 Evidence on charge of perjury or subornation On the trial of a person charged with an offence of which the giving of false testimony by any person at the trial of a person charged with an offence is an element, a certificate setting out the substance and effect only, without the formal parts, of the indictment, summons or charge, and the proceedings at the trial, and purporting to be signed by the officer having the custody of the records of the court where the indictment, summons or charge was tried, or by his deputy, shall be sufficient evidence of the trial without proof of the signature or official character of the person who appears to have signed the certificate. 300 Evidence on charge of bigamy (1) Subject to this section and section three hundred and one, on the trial of a person charged with bigamy, it must be proved that a lawful and binding marriage between the accused and another person existed at the time when the offence is alleged to have been committed. (2) On the trial of a person charged with bigamy, as soon as the fact of a marriage ceremony in Zimbabwe between the accused and another person has been proved, the marriage shall be deemed to have been lawful and binding as between them at the date thereof unless it is shown that they were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity, or that owing to a then subsisting marriage one of them was incapable of contracting a lawful and binding marriage with the other. (3) On the trial of a person charged with bigamy, as soon as the alleged bigamous marriage, wherever solemnized, has been proved, the fact that shortly before the alleged bigamous marriage the accused had been cohabiting with the person to whom the accused is alleged to be lawfully married and had been treating and recognizing such person as a spouse shall, if in addition there is evidence of the performance of a marriage ceremony between the accused and such person, be prima facie evidence that there was a lawful and binding marriage subsisting between the accused and such person at the time of the solemnization of the alleged bigamous marriage. 301 Proof of marriage When the fact that any lawful and binding marriage was contracted is relevant to the issue at any criminal trial, such fact shall be presumed unless the contrary is proved— (a) where the marriage is alleged to have been solemnized in any part of Zimbabwe, as soon as there has been produced to the court— (i) in the case of a marriage in terms of the Marriage Act [Chapter 5:11] or any Act repealed by that Act, a copy of an entry in a marriage register or a duplicate original thereof which purports to be certified by a district administrator or the Registrar of Marriages referred to in section 30 of that Act, as the case may be, or a duplicate original register of the entry; (ii) in the case of a marriage in terms of the Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07] or any Act repealed by that Act, a copy from the marriage register, which 111