Police Minister Mateni Tapueluelu has vowed Tonga will take action over the internet blackout that cut the kingdom’s communication with the outside world in January.

Hon. Tapueluelu said the loss had cost the kingdom $2 million.

“Someone has to pay,” the Minister told New Zealand’s One News.

“I’m sure some legal action will take place.”

As Kaniva news reported in January, the kingdom’s only internet and mobile phone providers, Digicel and Tonga Communications Corporation, were cut off

Tonga Cable used the local Internet Service Provider (ISP) Easynet via Kacific Satellite to  maintain essential services.

A Turkish-owned fuel tanker that regularly brings essential fuel and gas to the Pacific has been blamed for cutting the underwater fibre-optic cable that carried Tonga’s internet traffic.

One News reported that satellite evidence showed the Duzgit Venture in the same location as the breaks in the cable. It is believed they were caused by a dragging anchor.

The Turkish tanker arrived in Nuka’alofa on a Sunday, despite entry to the port being  banned on the Sabbath

The tanker is reported to have made a circular track across the no anchor area where the cables were cut.

The ship’s owners met with the Tongan Ports Authority in February.

The Duzgit Venture has a gross tonnage of 2166. It was built in 2009 and is registered in Malta.

The main points

• Police Minister Mateni Tapueluelu has vowed Tonga will take action over the internet blackout that cut the kingdom’s communication with the outside world in January.
• Hon. Tapueluelu said the loss had cost the kingdom $2 million.

For more information

Tonga keeps close eye on Turkish tanker after it plunged country into communication blackout

Undersea line has been cut, but could be repaired within two weeks says Tonga Cable

A submission to try Lord Tu’ivakanō, Isabella Satua Tu’akoi and former police inspector ‘Ileana Suliana Taulua together after they had been charged with passport offences is expected to be heard in September.

The crown submitted that the charges against the trio were closely related.

The proposal will be brought before Tonga’s new chief justice who is expected to start working in the kingdom in about two month’s time.

As Kaniva news reported last month, former Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakanō has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges stemming from the Chinese passports scandal.

The charges in the Supreme Court involved money laundering, bribery, perjury and fraud.

He had also denied firearms charges.

An audit of Tonga’s immigration divisions, completed in 2013, found a Chinese couple, Sien Lee and his wife, had been issued seven diplomatic passports and 15 ordinary passports since 2003.

A document alleged Lord Tu’ivakanō had received TP$199,408.94 on November 18, 2013 from Sien Lee and Ying Huang Lee while the king’s noble was the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It said the money was given to persuade him to act in their favour and that he allowed the issuance of documents which proved the holders were Tongan travellers.

According to the document, the application was lodged by Tu’akoi with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Immigration Department.

A police taskforce was established in 2015 to investigate with help from New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office.

The defence opposed the request for the joint trial.

The brother of late rugby legend Jonah Lomu has denied claims by a Tongan woman, who is facing life in jail, that Lomu was her uncle.

Selaima Fakaosilea, 30, and a co-accused, Stevie Norua Cullen, 36, have been on trial in the High Court at Whangārei for the past seven weeks charged with importing methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal group.

According to Stuff, Fakaosilea was a first cousin of Lomu, although she referred to him as “uncle.”

It said the mother-of-one “comes from a proud sporting family and was a relative of late rugby star Lomu.”

However, Jonah’s young brother Sione Lomu told Kakalu ‘O Tonga newspaper “that was a lie.”

He said they had no family connections at all and he did not know where Selaima and her family get their information from.

“She is not my cousin and I do not know her,” Sione told the paper, which is printed in Tongan.  

Sione also denied to Kakalu that Jonah and Selaima’s mother, Sela Tutu’ila, were first cousins. 

When Selaima first appeared in court the New Zealand media appeared unaware of her controversial claim about blood link to the football legend.

It was only in the reports of the last day of the hearing that Selaima and Jonah claimed connection made headlines, apparently after Stuff interviewed Selaima and her brother Lolo Faka’osilea.

Lolo referred to Lomu as ‘uncle’, telling Stuff he was someone he idolised from a young age.

However, he said he and his siblings did not have a lot to do with their famous uncle, with their parents distancing themselves from the hype of Lomu’s fame.

“For myself, he played a big role because of the influence he had on the game [of rugby] but it was never pushed on us by my family,” he said.

Lolo said the family moved to Australia while the children were still young.

He reportedly said Selaima went to school in Brisbane and was “very smart.”

She was also a talented sportswoman, playing rugby and successfully playing netball to representative level.

But, as the oldest of six children, Selaima had to put aside a potential netball career – and her back-up plan of being a flight attendant – to look after her four youngest siblings, Lolo told Stuff.

“Her main plan was to become a netballer, but she had to give that up when my parents split up [in her last year of high school].”

The drug offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Selaima’s older brother Ulakai Fakaosilea and five others have already pleaded guilty to their roles in the case.

On June 12, 2016, police in the Far North seized 449kg of methamphetamine from a campervan, driven by a 19-year-old known as Witness X, who became the Crown’s key witness. A further 52kg of meth was found by police the following day, buried in sand dunes on Ninety Mile Beach. The 501kg haul had an estimated street value of almost half a billion dollars.

Selaima’s defence was that she was not in Northland when the drugs came ashore and had no knowledge of the drugs or their importation.

She and her co-accused were remanded in custody for sentencing at the High Court in Whangārei. They were expected to be sentenced last week, but it has been postponed until next month.

The main points

• The brother of late rugby legend Jonah Lomu has denied claims by a Tongan woman, who is facing life in jail, that Lomu was her uncle.
• Selaima Fakaosilea, 30, and a co-accused have been on trial in the High Court at Whangārei for the past seven weeks charged with importing methamphetamine and participating in an rganised criminal group.

A Tongan woman helped herself to over US $100,000 belonging to a 98-year-old widow who she was supposed to help in San Carlos.

The alleged thefts began in 2015, after a local church recommended that the woman hire 50-year-old Nina Guttenbeil of Redwood City, The Mercury news reported.

Guttenbeil took $107,158 from the woman through ATM withdrawals, the report said.

Prosecutors have charged Guttenbeil with felony theft from an elder by a caretaker, and felony identity theft.

Guttenbeil pleaded not guilty to the charges when she was arraigned Tuesday in Redwood City. She is in custody on a $50,000 bond.

The woman’s daughters discovered the thefts after they began looking into their mother’s finances earlier this year, authorities said. According to the district attorney’s office, Guttenbeil admitted to the thefts when the women confronted her.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steven Wagstaffe said Guttenbeil has not given a statement to law enforcement, and said investigators are still trying to determine why she stole from the woman.

“We don’t know at this point where the money went,” Wagstaffe said.

The nobility’s nine MPs in Parliament have pleaded with the government to be allowed to receive TP$100,000 each from the constituency funding to help people in their various estates.

The funding was meant for the 17 people’s MPs to distribute each year among their constituencies to help what were most needed by their people for the development of their community.

This year each people’s MP is distributing TP$200,000 to their constituencies.

The nobles want to have the same opportunity for the funding.

Apart from TP$100,000 the nobles have requested, TP$200,000 was allocated to build a parliamentary office for them. Another TP$400,000 was added to this allocation which included a salary for an administrator to run the office.

The Prime Minister did not believe the nobility MPs should be allowed to access the funding. He said in the House if the nobles were given the money it could cause problems.

He said not every constituency in Tonga had a noble MP.

Hon. Pohiva said the distribution of the money among the 17 people’s MPs was fair as every constituency in Tonga would have the same opportunity to get a share from the funding through their MPs.

He said if the nine nobles in Parliament were given an allowance, this would set them apart from other nobles who were not in the House and would not get the same benefit for their estates.

Noble MPs to be elected by people

The Minister of Police said the funding was intended for the people.

Hon. Mateni Tapueluelu said having the constituency funding given to the people’s MPs to distribute among their constituency could be justified because people could vote them out if they misused the funding.

He said this did not apply to the nobility because they were only elected by 33 members of the nobility.

Hon. Tapueluelu said if the nobility resolved to allow the people to elect them to Parliament their request for the funding would be justified.

The pleas

Lord Nuku said it was only fair that every MP in the House received a fair share of Parliamentary funding.

Vava’u 15 MP Samiu Vaipulu pleaded with the House to accept the request by the nobility.

Lord Tu’ilakepa pleaded with the government bench that he wished to keep the peace and asked that the noble be given the same opportunity.

He said they would spend the money according to its purpose and nothing else.

The debate was not put to a vote after Lord Tu’i’afitu asked the House to leave it for the government to consider.

The Minister of Police said he was surprised by the noble’s move to leave the proposal for the government to make a decision.

The main points

• The nobility’s nine MPs in Parliament have pleaded with the government to be allowed to receive TP$100,000 each from the constituency funding to help people in their various estates.
• The funding was meant for the 17 people’s 17 to distribute each year among their constituency to help what were most needed by their people for the development of their community.