1:06 PM |
Tonga's government involved in row over departure of judge
Updated
There is concern in parts of Tonga's legal community that the government refused a judge's request to cancel a leave application because of his role chairing the Princess Ashika Ferry inquiry. Justice Warwick Andrew left the country earlier this week, with several outstanding cases still being heard. Judge Andrew presided over the Princess Ashika Inquiry and some in Tonga believe his premature departure was due to damning findings produced in the commission's final report. The ferry sank in July 2009, killing more than 70 people. The inquiry pointed blame at the ship's operator and the government. Prime Minister Fred Sevele has rejected the claim Tonga kicked Justice Andrew out, saying it was the Judge who left Tonga in the lurch.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Speaker: Statement from Prime Minister Fred Sevele's office; Laki Niu, President of Tonga's Law Society
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STATEMENT FROM PRIME MINISTER SEVELE: Justice Andrew's statement that Cabinet had prematurely discontinued his appointment as supreme court judge was totally untrue and that cabinet did no more than exceed to his request to resign early from his appointment in order to take up a new one in Australia. For him to now claim that we have done him and the people of Tonga an injustice is totally untrue and amounts to utter hypocrisy coming from someone who appears unable to make up his own mind.
A statement from Prime Minister Sevele's office. I spoke with the President of Tonga's Law Society, Laki Niu, who was working on a case with Judge Andrew at the time he left the country.
Pacific Beat has contacted Justice Andrew who told us it would be inappropriate for him to speak about the matter at this time, and he hopes to release a statement in the coming days.
NIU: Judge Andrew resigned. He resigned in July this year and had to give three months notice and that notice ran from July to October and he also expressed his wish that he would take leave from 16th of August until the end of his term in October and that was approved by cabinet. And even in July and early August, the judge knew or found he had no choice but to continue to sit through cases to dispose of cases that he had started and so he had to waive his leave entitlement and to stay on and carry through. And he so requested that he continue to do that and he left and went overseas for a week or so. And then he was informed there was a Cabinet decision that he was not to sit anymore or he was informed that the cabinet decision was such that he had no, he could not sit as a judge anymore.
MARCH: So because cabinet approved his early request, he couldn't subsequently change that request to complete the ongoing cases he was sitting on?
NIU: Cabinet decision did not quite say that, It just meant that he was off post so to speak and all his his files were to be handed over to the acting chief justice Shuster.
MARCH: Prime Minister Sevele has been quoted as saying that Judge Andrew left Tonga in the lurch so to speak, saying he did not have the decency to give adequate notice to find a replacement and the most important thing was to take up his appointment in Australia. Do you think that sentiment is correct?
NIU: No, no, definitely not. The judge had enough time, he had all the cases lined up to be disposed of before he would leave in October. The right to leave is a privilege. I mean it is up to Andrew if he wanted to take it or not and he chose to waive that right and continue sitting because of these cases. So he wanted to do it, but government told him no. He is not to sit at all.
MARCH: And what effect does his departure have on the pending cases that were ongoing at the time he left?
NIU: We have to start again. The case I was involved in, we had to start all over and our clients, respective clients who had to pay us all from scratch, start again.
MARCH: And you believe the decision by the justice department to force Justice Andrew to leave is politically motivated based on the Ashika inquiry?
NIU: I believe so, I believe that that was what happened.
Justice Andrew released a statement earlier today confirming Mr Niu's account.
He said the assertion made by Prime Minister Fred Sevele that his resignation as a Justice of Tonga's Supreme Court put the Government "in the lurch " was an unwarranted attack on the Judiciary.
Justice Andrew said "any suggestion that he was not prepared to complete the hearing or determination of cases before him was incorrect...and that he was saddened by his departure from the Kingdom of Tonga...and wished the people of the Kingdom all the very best for the future."
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