Police shift Georgians to undisclosed location pending trial [1]
Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 19:12
A group of seven Georgians have been shifted by Tonga Police from accomodation in Tofoa to an undisclosed place over the weekend.
Six, who are accused of dealing with forged documents namely stolen Greek passports, remain under house arrest due to appear at the Magistrate's Court at Fasi next week on Monday, October 24.
Charges against a 10-year-old boy with the group wre dropped. The group were moved from the Green Lodge at Tofoa to an undisclosed accomodation in Nuku'alofa and no reasons given.
However, Police did confirm that a group from Fairfax Media in New Zealand had in the weekend approached the accused for an interview at the lodge, which the police officers there did not allow since they are under house arrest and pending trial.
"This was not the reason why we moved them. We have reasons to do so, which we cannot disclose at this stage," said a Police spokesperson.
Court
The six who first appeared at the Fasi Magistrate’s Court on October 10 are Nino Menabdishvili (a.k.a Anastasia Papadatos), Koba Shinjikashvili (a.k.a Athanassios Panagiotopoulou), Dato Dekanoidze (a.k.a Stefanos Markopoulos), Maia Garibashivili (a.k.a Aikaterini Markopoulous), Zaza Tsikarishvil (a.k.a Evangeles Dragandis) and Genadi Gachechiladze (a.k.a Stefanos Papadatos).
The Georgians arrived in Tonga on September 22 with alleged stolen Greek passports. They were arrested and charged on Friday October 7, and had remained under house arrest at the Green Lodge at Tofoa.
They are alleged to have used Greek passports to enter Tonga after arriving on a flight from Fiji. They came to Tonga with the intention to go to New Zealand on the fake passports because Greek citizens do not require a visa to enter New Zealand.
It was also revealed at the lower court that the group had no finances and police had assisted by providing them with food.