The Supreme Court of Nuku‘alofa has dismissed four passport-related charges against Ilisapeta Saiatua Tu‘akoi but upheld four forgery charges.
Tu‘akoi had faced four counts of making false declarations to obtain a passport and four counts of forgery.
Lord Chief Justice Malcolm Bishop ruled that the passport charges could not stand because the relevant regulations were not in force at the time of the alleged offences in 2012.
“The Passport Amendment Act 2003, which brought into force the regulations, came into effect on 1 July 2014,” he stated. “The determinative question therefore was: can a defendant be convicted of an offence contrary to the regulations which have not been brought into force?”
The prosecution conceded, leading to the dismissal of the passport-related charges.
However, the forgery charges remain. The court alleges that Tu‘akoi signed passport application forms in the names of other individuals with the intent to deceive the Immigration Division.
Lord Chief Justice Bishop said, “The defendant created a document which told a lie about itself.”
The case will proceed, but a hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
