Results for From the Courts

Tongan resident, Christopher Pedras, also known as Antone Thomas Pedras, may face deportation from Tonga after an extradition hearing took place in Nuku’alofa on March 29. The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division wants Pedras removed from Tonga to face fraud charges including an alleged $8 million Ponzi scheme.

A 16-years imprisonment sentence was imposed on a man who had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of having carnal knowledge and indecently assaulting two girls who were under the age of 12 in 2014. The security of young children in Tonga is paramount here, said Mr Justice Cato on 7 April, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.

Tonga’s Chief Justice has quashed a decision by the Minister of Public Enterprises, Hon. Poasi Tei, to end the terms of two directors of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission who had refused to resign from the board voluntarily. The Supreme Court’s ruling also exposed a failure of the government in “a duty of candour” to disclose all relevant facts and the content of its decision making process.

Tonga's Court of Appeal first session this year began at the Nuku’alofa Supreme Court on Tuesday, 29 March to end with the delivery of judgments on Friday, 8 April. An appeal by Mateni Tapueluelu a former Tongatapu MP who lost his parliamentary seat last year will be heard this week.

The Tonga Court of Appeal's first session will be held from March 29 to April 8 and will hear an appeal by former Tongatapu No. 4 People’s Representative to Parliament, Mateni Tapueluelu.

Payment of a settlement for an undisclosed amount of money to Audra Watts, the widow of Kali Fungavaka, will be made from the Tonga Attorney General’s Office, who will also supervise the setting up of a trust for the benefit of the victim’s children by his first wife.

Samuela Holani (22) was sentenced to four-years and nine months imprisonment for the rape of a woman at home in Nuku'alofa, in July last year. "A woman is entitled to expect she is safe in her house from predatory sexual offending,” said the judge in passing sentence.

The Chief Justice dismissed an application by Mateni and Lautala Tapueluelu for a transfer to the Supreme Court of a civil proceeding for defamation brought against them by the CEO of Tonga Communications Corporation (TCC). The case will remain to be heard by the Magistrate's Court

Tevita ‘Ahoafi was sentenced to four-years imprisonment on Friday, 5 February for the manslaughter death of his paternal grand-uncle whom he killed in 2013 when he repeatedly struck him with a metallic pipe and a piece of wood at Ha’avakatolo, Tongatapu.