- Taremae trial moves to today
- Ngedea back in court
- Alleged robbers’ bail ruling today
- Suspects to enter plea
Taremae trial moves to today
PROSECUTION are still waiting for their witness to arrive in Honiara from Makira to testify in the trial of the former MP for Central Makira who faces conversion charges.
The witness whom is a former Constituency Development Officer for Central Makira was supposed to arrive on Tuesday.
He however, did not make it on Tuesday and again yesterday and so this matter was further adjourned to today.
This is to wait for this witness.
Prosecution said police were unable to get to the village of the witness due to the bad weather that caused the rivers to flood.
He said police were to cross two rivers in order to get to the witness’s village.
Principal Magistrate Fatima Taeburi therefore granted the prosecution one last adjournment to wait for the witness.
Former MP Hypolite Taremae is facing trial for two counts of conversion.
Prosecution alleged that on two separate occasions in 2012 and 2013, he misappropriated more than $200,000 of the reforestation and out growers’ funds.
That was when Taremae was the Member of Parliament for the Central Makira Constituency.
It was alleged that instead of disbursing the funds to the recipients of the reforestation and out growers’ funds who were mainly tree farmers from his constituency, he allegedly misused the funds.
Seven tree farmers had already gave evidence in this trial, where they denied receiving funding or assistance from their MP.
Another witness, a ship charterer, also told the court that he borrowed a total of $350,000 from Taremae in 2012 to charter a ship to Temotu.
He told the court in his evidence that according to the agreement signed by both him and the accused, he will repay the amount with a 50 percent interest.
The court heard that the ship charterer however, never repaid the money back to Taremae as the charter suffered a huge loss.
A total of 12 witnesses, including two from the Ministry of Forestry and Research, already gave evidence in this trial before Principal Magistrate Fatima Taeburi.
Anderson Kesaka of Mauri Lawyers represents Taremae while Public Prosecutors Bradley Dalipanda and Dalcy Belapitu are prosecuting.
Ngedea back in court
THE case of the man facing multiple false pretence charges amounting to $53,000 will be brought back to court today.
Sam Ngedea, 45, is facing 53 counts of false pretences in relation to allegations last year and this year in Honiara.
He will be appearing before Deputy Principal Magistrate Ricky Iomea for a mention.
Ngedea was charged following an incident between 3 December 2018 and 20 July 2019, where he allegedly lied to an elderly retired doctor and obtained $53,000 from him.
Prosecution alleged Ngedea collected the money on numerous occasions from the complainant at his motel in Honiara.
He claimed the money he collected were for compensation for the complainant trying to have sex with his mother, Mary.
Prosecution also alleged he would on different occasions, used different names such as George Ben, John Lake and Peter.
According to the allegation, Ngedea made an arrangement with a woman to meet the complainant.
It was few days after a woman who identified herself as Mary went to see the complainant that Ngedea allegedly started to call and threatened the complainant for money.
Over a period of time, the accused collected a total of about $53,000 from the complainant that he claimed for compensation and settlement of the matter outside of court.
The accused also obtain money from the complainant to assist him travel to New Zealand and for boat repair.
As a result of this incident, the complainant’s business was bankrupt resulting in him leasing his property.
Chris Rarumae of Public Solicitor’s Office represents Ngedea while Public Prosecutor Steward Tonowane is appearing for the Crown.
Alleged robbers’ bail ruling today
RULING on bail applications made for a father and his two sons accused of robbing a shop at Lungga, east of Honiara, will be handed down today.
Elton Titus Tosibana, Elton Kiko Tosibana junior and Tony Misitana are each facing one count of robbery.
Lawyers representing the three accused made the bail applications before Magistrate Ishmael Kekou on Tuesday.
The trio were charged in relation to an allegation on 11 August 2019, where $10,000 cash, sleeve cigarettes and other goods were robbed from Sirin Enterprise at Lungga.
Prosecution alleged the robbery occurred after Elton T Tosibana went to the Sirin shop went and asked for his three days payment for working a security at the shop.
He used to work as a security at the Sirin Shop.
After attacking the two Bangladesh inside the shop, the Tosibana Snr allegedly grabbed money from the cash box before it was taken by some boys who later escaped with it.
Not long after the incident, police arrived at the scene and arrested the three accused.
Police also recovered $600 from Tosibana Snr.
Public Prosecutor John Wesley Zoze appeared on behalf of the Crown on Tuesday.
Suspects to enter plea
Eight people charged in connection to the riots in after the election of the Prime Minister are likely to enter their pleas to amended charges tomorrow.
They were initially charged with riot charges but are now likely to face receiving and simple larceny charges.
The amendment of the charges will be made based on the evidence prosecution has on their file.
Prosecution do not have evidences of riot offences but do have some evidences of receiving stolen property and that of simple larceny.
The men were charged following an incident on 24 April this year at Henderson area, East Honiara.
This was after the election of the Prime Minister, when a small group of people took to the streets to cause violence.
During the riot, shops were looted including the Pacific Casino Hotel, vehicles were damaged and road blocks were mounted.
A number of Police Officers, Correctional Service Officers and civilians were injured during the various clashes in Honiara at that time.
Two shops located at Henderson next to the Henderson International Airport were also broken into and looted during that time.
As a result of police investigation, the eight accused were arrested the next day in relation to the incident at Henderson.
Public Solicitor’s lawyers Rodney Manebosa and Bobby Harunari represent the accused persons while Police Prosecutor Lyndon Adifaka is prosecuting.
