Results for murder

Police have identified ‘Aisea Tu’ineau Latu (49) as the man killed on Tuesday, 22 July at Afa on the eastern district of Tongatapu.

A 32-year-old man, who turned himself in to the Tonga Police, has been charged with the murder of a 19-year-old man from Ha‘afeva, who was found lying injured in front of the Government Primary School at Hala-‘o-Vave on Sunday morning.

Three men of Asian origin who were charged with murder in relation to the death of a 44-year-old Nuku'alofa shopkeeper, were released on Friday, June 29 after Crown Prosecutions offered no evidence.

Perpetrators of women abuse are to be held accountable for their own actions. This is not a Tongan societal problem. In old Tonga, the brothers or uncles of the abused women would descend on women abusers and beat the crap out of them, and may have even killed them in the process. But in a modern "democratic" society, we provide professional help, and then prosecute them under the law of the country as a deterrence mechanism. Unfortunately, we may have to see some of the guilty murderers hung before Tongan abusive men get the message. -Sione A. Mokofisi

The Prosecution Team of the Crown Law Department this morning took over from the Police Prosecution Team at the Nuku'alofa Magistrate's Court, to prosecute cases involving major crimes that were committed during the destruction of the capital Nuku'alofa on November 16, 2006.

Tongan juries often bring in verdicts of manslaughter (killing by an unlawful act such as assault, without the intent to kill) rather than murder (intentional killing of another, or recklessness as to the outcome of a grievous assault) when the facts clearly support a finding of murder. -David Garrett