Results for From the Courts

The counsel for Acting Director of Marine Viliami Tu'ipulotu argued on March 22 that his client signed the Provisional Certificate of Survey dated July 3, 2009 allowing the vessel to sail, because it confirmed that a survey was actually carried out on the vessel.

Defence counsel Laki Niu submitted to jurors in the Ashika trial that the Crown Prosecution had not provided any evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt the eight counts against his client, John Jonesse.

The Ashika Captain Makahokovalu Tuputupu in his record of interview to the police on February 23, 2010 admitted that he knew the vessel was unsuitable to sail in Tongan waters but he still took it to sea because he relied on the surveys conducted by the country the vessel was brought from and the survey conducted by Tonga's Marine Division.

THE brother of Vaefetu'u Mahe (22) whose body was one of only two recovered after the sinking of the MV Princess Ashika in his evidence on March 10, said he identified his sister's body at the Vaiola Hospital mortuary following its recovery on August 6, 2009.

Surviving crew member Benjamin Tupou who was on watch duty on the bridge from 8pm to when the MV Princess Ashika sank just before midnight on August 5, 2009, said that he woke up at 7:40pm that night to find water inside the cabin and some of his fellow crew member were bailing it out.

A 24-year-old man from Hofoa in Tongatapu was sentenced to three years imprisonment for six counts including theft, housebreaking and indecent assault, on March 4 at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa.

Paul Karalus, Tonga's former Minister of Transport told the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court on Thursday, February 24, that he had relied entirely on the maritime expertise of the marine surveyors and the Acting Director of Marine, defendant Viliami Tu'ipulotu and they had never told him of any concern they had about the seaworthiness of the MV Princess Ashika.

A Senior Marine Engineer, Lou Pale, one of the three surveyors who surveyed the MV Princess Ashika after it arrived in Nuku'alofa from Fiji on July 2, 2009 told the Supreme Court on Wednesday, February 23 that he had never surveyed a vessel with so many deficiencies as the Ashika and the vessel was unsuitable to sail on Tongan waters.

A Senior Marine Engineer who surveyed the MV Princess Ashika vessel in Nuku'alofa on July 2, 2009 told the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa yesterday, February 15, that the vessel was not good because it was full of holes and was heavily rusted.