Results for From the Courts

The Supreme Court has voided the election of Niuas 17 People’s Representative Lataifaingata’a Tangimana, finding that he engaged in bribery by giving fish to voters to influence their votes ahead of the November 2025 General Election.

A 29-year-old woman, Lepeka Moala, has been sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment, fully suspended, after admitting to obtaining a total of $88,000 by false pretences in two separate incidents involving vehicle scams conducted on Facebook.

Viliami Taukei’aho has been found guilty of causing serious bodily harm and common assault following a machete attack during a family dispute at Pea in 2024.

A 19-year-old man who brutally assaulted a 72-year-old in Vava’u — punching him from behind, knocking him unconscious and leaving him with internal injuries — has been spared immediate jail, receiving a fully suspended prison sentence.

A final warning rang out in Tonga’s Supreme Court as a repeat offender narrowly avoided jail — spared only by a glowing letter from his employer.

A 51-year-old woman suffered a fractured skull and permanent damage to her arm, while her daughter’s nursing studies were disrupted, after a violent machete attack that the Lord Chief Justice described as intolerable domestic brutality.

Pita Lolohea is serving 18 months in prison for counts that included the theft of electronics valued at around  $14,756 pa'anga and serious wilful damage when he broke into the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in March last year.

A Nuku'alofa businessman Tohitongi Fetu’u is serving life imprisonment for importing over 3.5 kg of methamphetamine, along with co-accused 'Eneasi Taumoefolau, one of the main financiers, who imported over 2.2 kg of methamphetamine. Four others received lengthy jail sentences for related drug offences. The judge named the alleged US supplier and urged Tongan authorities to liaise with the FBI to bring him to justice.

Penisimani Fisi’ihoi (43) is serving one year and six months imprisonment for obtaining $20,000 from a complainant, who was made to believe that he was surrendering over his town allotment in Kolomotu’a by falsifying a letter and stamp of the Ministry of Lands.