A second Tonga Court of Appeal Session for 2012 began at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today with a new judge and will hear nine cases, including one by former Speaker of the Tonga Legislative Assembly Lord Lasike.

Mr Justice Ken Handley of Australia replaces the late Mr Justice James Burchett* who had retired. He joins Mr Justice Peter Salmon and Mr Justice Michael Moore at the Court of Appeal.

Tonga's Chief Justice Michael Scott welcomed Justice Handley to the Court of Appeal that will end on October 12, with the delivery of judgements.

He said Justice Handley graduated from the University of Sydney in 1957 with BA LLB (First Class Honors). He sat at the Fiji Court of Appeal from 1996-2003 with another six-years at Fiji's Supreme Court until he was dismissed together with other colleagues by the military government.

Justice Handley told the court he was pleased to be in Tonga and he looked forward to making appropriate contributions to the Court of Appeal in this session and onwards.

Tonga's Attorney General Neil Adsett and Laki Niu the President of the Tonga Law Society also welcomed the new judge.

Mr Justice Ken Handley

Appeals

The Appeal Court has listed four criminal, three civil and two land cases to be heard. Lasike's appeal against his conviction on one count of possession of two .22 ammunitions without a license will be heard on October 5.

The Crown on October 4 will appeal against a sentence imposed on Tevita Faioso Vake who received four-years suspended sentence from former Justice Robert Shuster in February, after he was convicted of incest and indecent assault which he committed on his two daughters in 2008.

The land cases are Seini Paepae Finau v Minister of Lands and Sione M Heimuli; ‘Aivenihou Lisiate and Lautaimi Lisiate v Mele 'Eli, Vika Hui and Tapa'atoutai 'Eli. 

Three civil cases are Apex Insurance Brokers Ltd v Samipeni Finau; Dandin Group Ltd v Ministry of Police and Kingdom of Tonga, Global Insurance Ltd v Moapa Enterprises Ltd. .

The four criminal cases include Rex -v- Polonga Tau’alupe; Rex -v-Tevita Faioso Vake, Lord Lasike -v Rex and 'Aisea To’a v Rex.