Results for From the Courts

Tevita Hafoka (27) was sentenced to five-years and nine-months imprisonment after pleading guilty to manslaughter, when he stabbed a 23-year-old man with a small knife during a confrontation in Nuku’alofa on July 11, 2015.

Sio Vaka (20) was acquitted of manslaughter in relation to the stabbing death of Lipine Fakatene (33) in January last year, after a Supreme Court judge ruled this was self-defence during a tragic altercation at Fua'amotu. “Knives and other weapons should not be carried by young men for the purpose of fighting and this case is a demonstration of the very tragic consequences that can occur when they are,” said the Judge.

A young US Tongan woman in Seattle, Melissa Prisila Langi (23), is being charged with 10 counts of first-degree assault by a US Court for her participation in four separate drive-by shootings. She was arrested by Seattle Police last month May 26, in connection to the shootings.

Tonga's courts have granted the confiscation of $28,289 pa'anga of "tainted property" from a woman who ran a Chinese Clinic at Havelu - the first confiscation under Tonga's Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crimes Act 2000.

An injunction filed by the former General Manager of Tonga Broadcasting Commission Nanise Fifita has been adjourned to be heard on Monday, June 12.

A police officer (27) charged with armed robbery remains in custody after his case was adjourned to 6 June.

Paletili Afu (33) who pleaded guilty to various counts including reckless driving causing the death of a one-year-old baby boy during a collision on the road in 2016, received a two and a half-years suspended sentence, at the Supreme Court on 18 May. The judge noted with concern that it is not uncommon for passengers to be thrown from cars or trucks, during collisions of unworthy vehicles on Tonga's roads.

Nanise Fifita has filed an application for judicial review against Government over her dismissal and termination of her renewed contract as CEO of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission on 1 May.

Tevita Vaka (28) is serving an accumulative sentence of 12-years imprisonment for a series of violent robberies in 2015-16 in Nuku'alofa. A Supreme Court judge who viewed "the callous, ruthless nature of the offending" said this was a deterrent sentence to protect people from being the victims of predatory criminal acts in their homes.