8 Nov 2010

Tonga Crown to appeal perjury ruling

10:34 am on 8 November 2010

Tonga judge Robert Shuster has moved to re-assure state lawyers in the wake of the controversial decision to quash a charge of perjury against Law Lord, Ramsay Dalgety.

Last Monday, Justice Shuster threw out the charge, ruling the indictment was not correctly filed.

The Solicitor General, Aminiasi Kefu, says Justice Shuster has now given more detail on why he made a decision that's aroused a lot of concern in Tonga.

Mr Kefu says the judge has advised the decision won't affect other pending trials and that it wasn't a dismissal of the case.

But he says the Crown will still appeal.

"In the interests of public confidence in the judiciary, for certainty for the future process of indictments we will still appeal to the Court of Appeal and once we get a certain ruling from that we will move on, and hopefully continue the prosecution. But His Honour did produce his detailed reasons for it. I don't really to discuss it in detail but we have considered it and we are going to file an appeal."