Application in Court to quash charges against Talalelei Pauga

By Lagi Keresoma

APIA, SAMOA – 13 DECEMBER 2021: The Australia based Samoan who threw a pig’s head at former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi during a community a function in 2018, is asking the court to quash the charges against him.

Filed by his Apia based lawyer, Tufuga Fagaloa Tufuga, the application is to quash the joint charge with two others implicated in an alleged plot to assassinate the former Prime Minister.

Tufuga is applying for the Court to consider the situation that Pauga resides in Australia and that the matter has been on the Court list for some time.

The prosecution asked for time to prepare a response to the application and the Court granted that all documents should be filed in Court by 7 February 2022 and the hearing of the application is set for 28 February 2022.

In 2019, Samoa’s Attorney General applied for Pauga to be extradited to face the charges in Samoa but had been delayed as Pauga is fighting against the extradition order in the Australian courts.

Meanwhile, one person has been jailed after he pleaded guilty for his part in the assassination plot and two other men have been in and out of court as the hearing is yet to proceed.