Georgians on fake passports ordered to pay $6000 and leave Tonga

The six Georgian nationals who had admitted using forged documents to enter Tonga paid thousands of dollars for fraudulent passports.

Justice Charles Cato ordered them to pay TP$1,000 each and were also given two-year suspended prison sentence.

They were also ordered to leave the kingdom within two weeks starting from October 26.

Koba Shinjikashvili (a.k.a Athanassios Panagiotopoulou), Nino Menabdishvili (a.k.a Anastasia Papadatos), Dato Dekanoidze (a.k.a Stefanos Markopoulos), Zaza Tsikarishvil (a.k.a Evangeles Dragandis), Maia Garibashivili (a.k.a Aikaterini Markopoulous and Genadi Gachechiladze (a.k.a Stefanos Papadatos) pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court.

They told the court they intended to leave Tonga and they would pay for their return flights home.

The victims through their counsel Laki Niu could apply to the Court for an extension to stay in Tonga only if there was an exceptional situation in the arrangements for their departure.

Mr Cato said: “It’s a serious matter to use fraudulent means to enter Tonga for any reason and also as a platform from which to illegally enter other countries. This Court must send out a deterrent message that offenders will be treated harshly by the Courts for offending of this kind. Security of borders is a paramount consideration”.

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