Parties in Longstanding Legal Case Agree to Settle Out of Court

By Lagi Keresoma/

Apia, Samoa – 06 November 2024 – All parties in a longstanding legal battle over an unlawful arrest in 2017, have agreed to settle out of court and the matter to be recalled next month to see if there will be any progress in the settlement.

This was confirmed by Counsel Muriel Lui who appeared for the Plaintiff, Katerina Lesatele in court yesterday.

The Respondents are the Attorney General and four police officers of the Ministry of Police & Prisons.

Case background
The Plaintiff was arrested at a supermarket at Tamaligi in April 2017 on allegations that she was the social media blogger O Le Palemia (OLP).

As with normal procedures, a person is arrested and detained in custody for 24 hours until all legal procedures are done then released.

However, in the Plaintiff’s case, she was not released after 24 hours but further detained under police custody for a period of 10 days.

The matter was finally called before the District Court on 27 April 2017 but police asked for an adjournment as in order to finalise their charges against the Plaintiff.

Three years later in February 2020, the case was finally called for hearing only for police to ask to withdraw the charges as they could not obtain any evidence against the accused.

The charges
The charges centered around the Plaintiff being the alleged OLP who was responsible for spreading defamatory information about the former Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) especially the former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

The Court accepted the police application and withdrew the charges.

The Plaintiff then decided to sue the Respondents.

Lawsuit
The lawsuit focused on several points that included, Unlawful arrest, Police abuse of power, Negligence in their investigation before making an arrest, No proper cause for her arrest, Abuse of her human rights and Malicious prosecution.

According to the Plaintiff, the arrest and the events that followed have affected her human rights and feelings especially the public humiliation she suffered.

The Plaintiff is asking for $300,000 and the Respondents applied to quash the lawsuit application.

On 9 October 2024, the Court delivered its decision that denied the Respondents’ application.

Court apologize for delay judgment
Before delivering his judgment, Justice Fepulea’i Ameperosa Roma apologised to the Plaintiff for the delayed judgment.

He denied the Respondents application to quash the lawsuit against them.

He also ordered the Plaintiff to file supplementary documents to identify and clarify some of the points which her lawsuit is based upon.

The matter will be recalled on 2 December 2024 to see the progress of the settlement.