THE judgement on the appeal filed by former Member of Parliament (MP) for Northeast Guadalcanal Ethel Vokia, her husband Jamie and three others against a magistrate’s decision on their criminal case has been deferred until today.
The deferral was made last Friday because the judgement was not yet ready.
Judge Ronald Bei Talasasa Jnr therefore delayed the judgement to 9am today.
Ethel, Jamie who served as the Northeast Guadalcanal MP prior to Ethel’s bye-election to the seat and three others – Rose Tala who is the Guadalcanal Provincial Assembly (MPA), Moses Beacon and Polycarp Pereseni – had appealed a magistrate court ruling on their application for a permanent stay of proceedings.
Chief Magistrate Emma Garo had dismissed the application and instead ruled that there was no abuse of process as submitted by their lawyers.
The criminal matter was also mentioned in the Honiara Magistrate Court last Friday morning and was further adjourned to March 1, pending the judgement.
Ethel and her co-accused are facing the charge of Conspiracy to Defeat Justices and interference with witness, contrary to section 116(b) of the Penal Code 9 cap 26 to be read with section 21(a) of the Penal Code (Cap 26).
Ethel is also facing a separate charge of Election Bribery contrary to section 126(1)(a) and (b)(ii) of the Electoral Act 2018.
The prosecution alleged Jamie obstructed the due course of justice and Ethel and the three other defendants aided and abetted him between 20 January 2020 and 27 January 2020 in Honiara, preventing a woman who was lawfully bound to appear and give evidence as a witness from appearing and giving evidence at the High Court.
This was during a High Court hearing of the Election Petition case lodged against Jamie.
Jamie lost his seat after the High Court found him guilty of three counts of briberies at the Election Petition hearing in 2020.
A bye-election was held later in 2020, which saw Jamie’s wife Ethel win the Northeast Guadalcanal seat.
The prosecution also alleged that on 7 January 2018, Ethel gave $250 to a person with the intention of influencing that person and two others to vote for Jamie at the 2019 National General Election.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Newsroom, Honiara
