Transcript
'AMINIASI KEFU: We're greatly disappointed, however the warrant for his arrest and the indictment is still alive and we will still pursue it.
KORO VAKA'UTA: What happens now? According to reports I have seen, the court has granted the government motion to dismiss the entire case and release the defendant, how does that impact the indictment from Tonga's perspective?
'AK: The indictment is still alive. The US Federal Court in the District of Hawaii had already found that he was eligible for extradition, however the decision has been made by the Secretary of State. He has come to this conclusion based on their concerns that Tonga is unable to provide free legal counsel. We've explained that we don't have a free legal aid system here in Tonga and we feel that Fletcher was still able to engage counsel because before he absconded from the Tongan jurisdiction, he did engage a senior lawyer here in Tonga and also a lawyer of experience from Auckland, New Zealand, to represent him.
KV: Is there an appeal process or is this decision been made at such a high level that that's it?
'AK: There is no appeal. The functions of the court have finished. Courts have found that he was eligible to be extradited. According to the US, they also felt that Fletcher was unable to fund his own legal representation and we had already explained that he had already engaged counsel before but that is a US ruling and the US State Department is tied to that and that's their position.
KV: Tongan authorities are still pursuing him but I guess if he doesn't leave the US there's no way that you could obtain him?
'AK: That's correct. Unless he goes to some other country where we have extradition arrangements with, then we will restart the process there and hopefully bring him to justice.
KV: The concerns outlined by the State Department, is that something that Tonga needs to work on or is working on, or they don't see it as a problem?
'AK: Providing free legal aid here has always been an issue. It comes down to the government's resources. We have never been able to do that. The only time that we did provide free legal aid was with the assistance of the New Zealand government after a few hundred people were charged after the 2006 riots in Nuku'alofa. Tonga tried to maintain it for a couple of years but then we couldn't. The issues have been on the table for a few years and we are now looking at it more seriously.
KV: And the other concern that they outlined was the death penalty. Is there any movement on that and out of interest, has that been actioned in recent times?
'AK: No. We have technically defacto abolition in this country. We have never used that penalty since 1980 or '81 and there have been more gruesome murders than what's alleged against Fletcher, where the courts have only imposed life imprisonment and the Crown has had no issue with that. So we have tried to explain to our United States counterparts that it is very highly unlikely that Fletcher will receive the death penalty in these circumstances. It's a borderline case between a manslaughter and a murder case, but the main issue I understand that they were more concerned about is that Tonga couldn't provide free legal representation for Fletcher.
