By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – David LambournAn Australian-born Excessive Courtroom choose whose aborted deportation two years in the past from Kiribati sparked a judicial disaster within the Pacific Island nation appeared in courtroom on Tuesday in a case carefully watched by the United Nations. and worldwide authorized teams.
Lambourne, who has lived in Kiribati for 30 years and is married to the opposition chief Tessie Lambourne, faces deportation if he loses a Excessive Courtroom problem to Kiribati President Taneti Maamau's try to fireside him. Kiribati will maintain nationwide elections later this yr.
Lambourne has been dwelling in Kiribati with no visa or wage since 2022, when Maamau suspended him, after which suspended the three judges of the Courtroom of Enchantment and the chief justice after deciding that Lambourne shouldn’t be deported.
An tried pressured deportation amid authorized proceedings in August 2022 failed when a Fiji Airways pilot refused to just accept Lambourne on the airplane in opposition to his will.
“Immediately's case entails the federal government's continued assault on the rule of legislation,” Lambourne's lawyer, Perry Herzfeld, informed the courtroom through video hyperlink from Sydney, pointing to what he mentioned have been problems with judicial independence.
Maamau had appointed a brand new tribunal to research Lambourne on an “extraordinarily accelerated timetable” with plans to submit a report back to parliament subsequent month, Herzfeld mentioned. Lambourne's authorized group solely realized of the courtroom's existence days in the past, he added.
Not one of the allegations made in opposition to Lambourne – together with a disputed declare that he took too lengthy to guage – warranted the president forming a tribunal to research his elimination from workplace, he mentioned.
It was additionally “deadly” beneath the structure that the courtroom didn’t embrace a judicial officer, he added.
Kiribati's deputy lawyer common, Monoo Mweretaka, argued in courtroom that the allegations in opposition to Lambourne have been severe, and there was no requirement within the structure for the courtroom to supply him procedural equity.
There was nonetheless no definition of the judicial workplace within the structure, so it shouldn’t be restricted to legally skilled officers, he added.
In a letter to Kiribati in September 2023, Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Particular Rapporteur on the independence of judges and attorneys, mentioned she was “gravely alarmed” by the collection of suspensions of judges , which left Kiribati with no functioning Excessive Courtroom or Courtroom of Enchantment. to make a test on the ability of the parliament.
The letter additionally raised considerations that Lambourne's remedy and the shortage of a judicial officer in courtroom might violate human rights requirements.
An interim visa issued to Lambourne in January will expire when a sentence is handed down by the courtroom.
Excessive Courtroom commissioner Aomoro Amten reserved his judgment on Tuesday.
Kiribati's parliament sits for a ultimate session subsequent month, earlier than dissolving in Could forward of nationwide elections.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Modifying by Lincoln Feast.)
