Results for Tonga Supreme Court

A Supreme Court ruling has restrained Tonga's Public Service Commission from advertising or recruiting a Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while suspending the appointment of Paula Ma’u as its Acting Chief Executive Officer. "The dispute at this level of Government, between Foreign Secretary and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by its nature is pressing; it’s potential to be damaging both domestically and internationally axiomatic," stated Mr Justice Cooper.

The Tonga Supreme Court has refused to grant an injunction that was sought by plaintiffs to stop Parliament from sitting until the final determination of judicial review proceedings. The Acting Chief Clerk of the Legislative Assembly said that the Supreme Court also heard submissions on a separate application by the Speaker and the Legislative Assembly that disputes the jurisdiction of the court to investigate the internal proceedings of the House on the September vote of no confidence motion in the Prime Minister.

‘Alefosio Vaingaina (44) was sentenced to six-years imprisonment for serious housebreaking and theft of Tongan koloa, valued at around $22,800 from the Royal Palace in Vava'u. The judge said it would appear that this is the first published case of housebreaking and theft perpetrated against the Royal family.

The Tonga Supreme Court yesterday, 28 October, dissolved an injunction order issued against the newly established Tonga Ma’a Tonga Rugby League Inc. (TMTRL) and the Tongan Government. This was after the plaintiff, the Tonga National Rugby League (TNRL), agreed to withdraw from legal proceedings on the basis that the Tonga Government reconsider its decision to endorse the TMTRL.

The Crown in opening its case today in the murder trial of a Chinese couple, Mr Feng Sheng Pei and Mrs Su Jie Wen, who were found with multiple stab wounds at a vegetable plantation last year, submitted that the accused Sitiveni ‘Esi Muli (17) had intended to commit the murders.

The Tonga Supreme Court has acquitted a teenager on charges of knowingly having consensual intercourse with a 14-year girl in 2017. The court accepted that the accused, who was 18 years old at the time, believed that the girl was 17 years and would not have had sexual intercourse with the girl if he knew she was 14. The girl became pregnant as a consequence.

The Chairperson and a director who refused to resign from the board of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC) are seeking a judicial review of the early terminations of their three-year appointments to the board of the public enterprise.

A lawsuit filed by Tongan MP Sione Taione against the Tongan government, accusing it of unlawfully making payments to three nobles, was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday 22 August.