Results for From the Courts

A police officer was acquitted of bribery, after a Supreme Court judge found the evidence had not established, that he accepted money as inducement to carry out his duties.

Three men received suspended sentences and one was discharged on conditions, at the Supreme Court in an assault of a soldier at Havelu in September 2018.

'Alamoni Makafilia (33) is serving 16-years imprisonment, for armed robberies at two petrol stations in Tongatapu in 2018 where he shot and wounded two petrol station attendants.

The Crown has dropped six charges of bribery and money laundering against Lord Tu'ivakano, in relation to the issuance of Tongan passports to Chinese nationals. The jury trial proceeds next week on three remaining charges against the former Prime Minister.

Lord Tu’ivakano has denied offences made against him relating to the issuance of Tongan passports to Chinese nationals, when he gave evidence as the first witness for defense, on March 3.

Soane Patita Toutai’olepo (19) was sentenced to two-years imprisonment for grievous bodily harm, when he threw a rock injuring another student in a school rivalry between Tupou College and Tonga College, in 2019. The Chief Justice said it was a deterrent for future rival school violence. "It is a very great shame that the defendant must start his adult years by spending a year in prison.”

A 16-year-old boy received a fully suspended sentence for indecently assaulting a 51-year-old woman, who was going for a run in the morning. "No member of society deserves to be set upon in broad daylight in the way in which the defendant did here,” said the Chief Justice in sentencing the offender.

The trial against Lord Tu'ivakano on offences relating to Tongan passports, heard from a Crown witness, that despite lack of concrete evidence to prove naturalisation in two passport applications, the accused still directed for their issuance.

The jury trial against Lord Tu’ivakano who is charged with 10 counts, mostly passport related offences is continuing, in its second week at the Supreme Court, in Nuku'alofa.