A Sri lankan man has been given a two year suspended jail term by the Supreme Court of Tonga for entering the country using forged documents.
Photo: 123rf
Vaseeth Samsudeen arrived at Fu'amotu Airport in May last year, and presented an illegal French passport he said he bought from a colleague in Hong Kong.
He had told police after being arrested that it was his intention to go to New Zealand and seek asylum.
Samsudeen had told the court he feared for himself and his family after he had witnessed the murder of aid workers in the Mutur area of Sri Lanka, and that was why he wanted to seek asylum.
But the court heard that he had previously been deported from Britain to Sri Lanka in 2015.
Samsudeen has to leave Tonga by mid June but if he fails to pay an amount of $US427 dollars to the court by then, the suspension on his prison term will be lifted.
