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Lord Tu’ivikano has escaped jail after the Supreme Court suspended two two year sentences.
The former Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament was sentenced to two years for making a false statement for the purpose of obtaining a passport and an additional two years for perjury.
The sentences would have been served at the same time, but Lord Chief Justice Whitten suspended the imprisonment on condition that the Noble be placed on probation and perform 100 hours community service.
He was also fined TP$2000 for possessing an unlicensed firearm and TP$2000 for possessing unlicensed ammunition.
Former Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano was found guilty last month.
The offences in what was known as the Chinese passport scandal were committed in 2015, but he was not charged until 2018.
As Kaniva News reported earlier, six charges of bribery and money laundering in relation to the issuance of Tongan passports to Chinese nationals had been dropped.
It was originally alleged that between 2013-2014, while serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs, he accepted money to issue Tongan passports to various Chinese nationals.
Lord Tu’ivikano was charged with making a false statement for the purpose of obtaining a passport. The particulars of the charge were that on or about 17 July 2015, at Nuku’alofa, with the purpose of obtaining a passport for Hua Guo and Xing Liu, and with intent to deceive the Immigration Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defendant wrote a letter to the Immigration Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that Hua Guo and Xing Liu were naturalised as Tongans on 29 October 2014.
Evidence tended to the court showed that the persons naturalised that day were Singkei Lou and Shanoi Kam. Viliami Lolohea gave evidence that he did not accept the applications in the names of Hua Guo and Xing Liu because they were incomplete and he had identified them from photographs as Singkei Lou and Shanoi Kam.
On the charge of perjury the court was told that on or about Decembe21, 2015, in Nuku’alofa, the Defendant made an oath in an affidavit a material statement to his knowledge staing that “Mr Hua Guo and Ms Xing Liu were naturalised during my tenure as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry” and “after naturalisation Tongan passports were then issued to these two”, knowing thee statements were false.
On the firearms charges, the court was told that during the execution of a search warrant at the Lord Tu’ivikano’s house, the defendant told police officers he had a .22 firearm and ammunition and no licence for them. He directed the officers to the boot of a vehicle owned by a friend.
There, the police found a .22 rifle and a total of 212 rounds of ammunition in a large box. The Defendant had a licence for the rifle for 2016. He maintained that he had renewed the licence for 2017, and around December that year, gave it to his driver to have renewed. The 2017 licence was never produced in evidence, nor was there any record in the relevant registers of a licence having been issued for 2017.
The prosecution said Lord Tu’ivikano was in a position of trust and authority, as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
His actions had impugned the integrity of the passport regime which was fundamental to the administration of Tongan passports to be used as evidence of identity and nationality of Tongan subjects travelling internationally and undermined the capacity of Government to administer passports and the Passport Act.
The prosecution noted that the defendant is 67, had suffered a heart attack in 2013 and was a first time offender.
The defence said he was 68 and had “hitherto lived the life of a hardworking, honest and trusted person.”
The Supreme Court found Lord Tu’ivikano guilty.
The court ordered that the fines it imposed were to be paid within three months, in default two months imprisonment;
The rifle was confiscated and the ammunition was to be handed over to the armed forces.
