Results for Lord Chief Justice Michael Whitten

A husband and wife who pleaded guilty to possession of methamphatamine were sentenced at the Supreme Court on July 20. One received a suspended sentence, while the other was placed on a good behaviour bond. The Chief Justice warned if they continued to live a lifestyle or associate with others that might tempt them to use drugs again, they should “just look at their children and think what it would be to lose them.”

A 16-year-old boy received a fully suspended sentence for indecently assaulting a 51-year-old woman, who was going for a run in the morning. "No member of society deserves to be set upon in broad daylight in the way in which the defendant did here,” said the Chief Justice in sentencing the offender.

Rizvi Jurangpathy whose employment contract was terminated by Tonga Communications Corporation in 2017, was awarded $165,000 pa'anga in damages by the Lord Chief Justice, who found he was subjected to unfair treatment when he was under investigation for the allegations against him. The employer had relied on “inaccurate and inadequate” information and breached its obligations.

A Sri Lankan national Vaseeth Samsudeen has been ordered to leave Tonga or face deportation back to Sri Lanka. He received a fully suspended sentence, after using a forged French passport in Tonga earlier this year.