Police appeal dismissal of Tonga College case [1]
Monday, September 26, 2005 - 09:45. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 22:28.
Police prosecutors are appealing a magistrate's decision to dismiss charges against 15 Tongan College students who were allegedly involved in damaging offices and computers at the College during the civil servants strike.
A date for the hearing of an Appeal Case will be set at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today.
On September 22 Police Magistrate Masao Paasi dismissed a case against 15 Tongan College students who were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime
At the first hearing of the case on August 22, the legal counsel for the accused William Clive Edwards claimed that the writ was void because it did not spell out the offence committed, and he argued that a conspiracy charge in the interpretation of the law was not a crime.
Police Magistrate Paasi told the court that to conspire to commit a crime was an offense, and ruled for the case to continue, but he adjourned it to September 22 for the Preliminary Inquiry to begin.
The 15 students were alleged to have damaged computers and the administration office of the school, showing their opposition to a decision by the Ministry of Education, during the strike by civil servants, to remove the principal and three other tutors from the school to work at the administration office of the Ministry of Education in Nuku'alofa.
Following the dismissal of the case on September 22, Police Prosecution lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court to review the merit of the decision.