Results for Nuku'alofa Supreme Court

Tonga Soane (57) was sentenced to 16-months imprisonment after being convicted of uttering counterfeit currency, which amounted to $500 pa’anga at different venues in December 2019. The offending was driven entirely by greed.

The recently appointed Governor of Ha’apai, Viliami Manuopangai Hingano (46) was found guilty today of unlawful possession of 198kg of turtle meat, confiscated in a cargo onboard the MV 'Otuanga'ofa ferry last year. The Supreme Court judge did not believe the former Member of Parliament’s evidence that he did not know the requirement of the law. “Ignorance of the law is not a defence to any offence.”

Malia Selupe (32) will be sentenced on April 9 at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court on five counts of obtaining by false pretences around $59,000 pa’anga from customers at her car dealer company in Longolongo.

A case on the theft of taro leaves from a plantation in Ha'alalo was ordered to be returned to the Magistrate’s Court for a hearing, after the Supreme Court allowed an appeal, and quashed a decision of a magistrate who had dismissed it.

‘Amusia Mateni was found guilty at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court of possessing 8.08 grams of methamphetamine during a confrontation with a police officer on a road in Ngele'ia. He tried to destroy the illicit drug by tearing the packets in his mouth and throwing it into a puddle.

Sione Siueli Angilau (41) was sentenced to 12-months imprisonment for possession of 0.07 grams of methamphetamine and 9.26 grams of cannabis.

Taufa Latuselu was sentenced to nine-months imprisonment, which was fully suspended for unlawful possession of illicit drugs by the Lord Chief Justice who said, had he been charged with supplying or if this offending occurred after the current amendments to the Illicit Drugs Control Act, full suspension would not have been available.

The trial of former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Sione Vuna Fa’otusia will be held in July on charges, which related to a dispute over a stolen cow in 2019.

Heamani Saafi (66) was sentenced to two-years and six-months imprisonment for cultivation of three cannabis plants at his home in Ha'asini. The illicit drug weighed 59.18 grams. Justice Langi suspended the sentence in full on February 4, at the Nuku’alofa Supreme Court.