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The court challenge on the invocation of the Leadership Code on 13 convicted Vanuatu politicians was challenged yesterday afternoon in the Vanuatu Court of Appeal.
A decision on that matter will be handed down next Friday.
Willie Jimmy and Silas Yatan through their lawyers had appealed against the invocation order saying it is unconstitutional and illegal.
Last year, Jimmy and Yatan were convicted of the offense of “corruption and bribery of officials” under section 73 of the Penal Code.
Eleven other bribe recipients and givers were each sentenced to three to four and a half years of imprisonment. Jimmy received a 20-month suspended sentence due to his pleading guilty at the start of the trial. The fourteenth. Robert Bohn, was acquitted.
And on the seventh December 2015, Supreme Court Justice David Chedwynd granted a prosecution application that the Leadership Code Act be invoked, and this was challenged in court today..
Yesterday in the appeal trial, lawyers for the appellants argued that the invocation was illegal because it was in a form of second punishment; and that the Vacation of Seats Act was not fully applied. They argued about the status of the convicts when the Leadership Code was invoked.
Legal counsel, Justine Ngwele put to the Court of Appeal that his client Willie Jimmy was no longer a leader following his conviction when the Leadership Code was invoked.
But, Public Prosecutor, Josaia Naigulevu after listening carefully to the appellants’ arguments said if anyone is confused about the role of a leader than section 50 of the Leadership Code Act on Defense to Prosecution, should be considered because that encompasses the spirit of the arguments.
Section 50 reads: “It shall not be a defense to a prosecution under this Act that the accused was not at the time of an investigation or is not in the course of prosecution under this Act or in the event of a conviction at time of sentencing a leader, and for the purposes of establishing jurisdiction it shall be sufficient for the prosecution to establish that at the time of the offence the accused was a leader”.
Naigulevu also referred to the Sope case in 2004 when he was convicted of forgery, pardoned by the president but was also charged under the leadership Code.
The judgment on this appeal will be handed down on the afternoon of April 15.
Pic: Willie Jimmy Tapangararua (L) Silas Yatan (R)
