Results for From the Courts

A policeman who committed "a heinous and despicable act" was confident that if the victim filed a complaint against him his fellow workers would hide it, Tonga's Chief Justice said in sentencing a constable to seven years imprisonment for raping and assaulting a woman held in a cell.

A sentence of imprisonment is inevitable a judge told two young men who were convicted at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today on a charge of possessing marijuana.

A total of seven years imprisonment was imposed today on a ringleader in the destruction of a Chinese shop in Nuku'alofa, in the first major prison sentencing handed down on crimes committed during the riots of November 16 last year.

Tonga's Rugby Union has been ordered by the Supreme Court to hold an annual general meeting this month, in an ongoing dispute within the union that now means today's expected announcement of Tonga's 30-member Rugby World Cup team has been postponed indefinitely.

"Young girls need to be protected from sex predators like yourself", Tonga's Chief Justice told a 65-year-old man in sentencing him to six years in prison, at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today.

A jury has found Sione Halafuka Vea (75) not guilty of the charge sedition at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today, July 26.

Sione Halafuka Vea (75) of Haveluloto, Tongatapu pleaded not guilty to one charge of sedition at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court today, July 24.

The five People's Representatives who face criminal charges relating to the destruction of Nuku'alofa on November 16, 2006, appeared at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court for the first time this morning to make their pleas.

Mr. Justice Warwick John Andrew was appointed as Tonga's new permanent Supreme Court judge, from May 10.