Results for From the Courts

Siosaia Langi Naufahu (54) was sentenced to five and a half-years imprisonment for grievous bodily harm for pouring a pot of boiling water on his wife in a "cruel and callous" deliberate action at their home in Sopu last year. The victim, the mother of their nine children, was put on life support with 35 to 40 percent burns of her total body surface area and suffered permanent injury from the terrifying experience.

A civil servant, Poasi Ngaluafe (49) has been charged with reckless and drunk driving in relation to the death of a man who was allegedly sitting in the middle of By-Pass Road at Longolongo early Sunday morning, 8 May.

Uini Kava (46) is the man who died after he was allegedly run over by a vehicle while sitting in the middle of By-Pass Road in Longolongo early Sunday morning, 8 May.

Vaka Fanua (20) was sentenced to three-years imprisonment after being convicted for reckless driving that caused the death of a minibus driver Tikisinale Kena on a road in Feletoa, Vava’u, on August 19, 2015.

Utah gang member, Nitokalisi Fonua has asked for forgiveness from the families of his two victims during his sentencing by a Salt Lake City court last Saturday April 16. Nitokalisi was sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment for the murder of Viliami Latu (34) in 2007 and Krystal Flores (22) in 2009.

Now imprisoned Tongan businessman, Mosese Uele, was yesterday identified in a New Zealand Court as being the alleged “inside man” for a major illegal drug trafficking operation between China and New Zealand. He was named in the trial of Chinese born Yixin Gan (35) who once lived in Tonga and is accused of smuggling 250kg of drugs into New Zealand.

Parents of an eight-months old infant, who died after no medical treatment was sought in 2014, were acquitted of manslaughter by negligence and an alternative count of willful neglect of a child on 8 April, by a Supreme Court judge who considered that all concerned were victims of poverty. "The circumstances of the case are tragic," he said.

Ousted Member of Parliament, Mateni Tapueluelu, has successfully appealed against a declaration made by Lord Chief Justice Paulsen that resulted in him being removed from Parliament in December last year. The Court of Appeal of Tonga overturned the decision on Friday April 8.

A Tongan woman has been jailed by a US court for sexually abusing and prostituting her 6 year-old daughter.