By Lagi Keresoma<\/p>\n
APIA, SAMOA – 01 SEPTEMBER 2023:<\/strong> Australian citizen Talalelei Pauga has been extradited and is now in custody at the Tanumalala Prison and will appear in court next Monday.<\/p>\n He is the third defendant in the conspiracy to murder former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of which two others have been sentenced to four years in jail.<\/p>\n Pauga arrived in Samoa today accompanied by Samoan police who the Australian police handed over the accused at the Brisbane airport.<\/p>\n The accused unsuccessfully fought against the Attorney General\u2019s application to extradite him to stand trial\u00a0in Samoa to answer\u00a0to his alleged involvement in the conspiracy to murder.<\/p>\n The other two defendants, Malele Paulo and Lema\u2019i Sione were sentenced to 4 years imprisonment after a panel of Assessors found them guilty of the offence. Lema\u2019i Sione is appealing the decision.<\/p>\n Their trial was conducted behind closed doors and the media were not allowed to publish any information that might jeopardise Pauga\u2019s upcoming trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Lagi Keresoma APIA, SAMOA – 01 SEPTEMBER 2023: Australian citizen Talalelei Pauga has been extradited and is now in custody at the Tanumalala Prison and will appear in court next Monday. He is the third defendant in the conspiracy to murder former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi of which two others have been sentenced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[177,188],"tags":[2969,2970,59,435],"class_list":["post-19229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-law-order","tag-accused-in-conspiracy-to-murder","tag-extradited-from-australia","tag-featured","tag-talalelei-pauga"],"yoast_head":"\n