A New Zealand judge who has been serving as Chief Justice of Kiribati for the past year, has been suspended.
The Kiribati government has taken issue with comments by William Hastings in an article titled "A personal journey through the rule of law in the South Pacific."
In the piece, which appeared in Judicature, an international journal for judges, Hastings was critical of moves by the Kiribati government which appeared to undermine the rule of law.
William Hastings Photo: Supplied
The government expressed its concern with Hastings in a press release, saying the comments, published last year, came amid court action with the country's only other High Court judge, David Lambourne.
Those charges had arisen, the government said, after complaints it had received about Lambourne.
But international legal bodies, such as the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, have accused the Kiribati government of undermining the independence of the judiciary.
Its president, Brian Speer, said they are not following a fair process.
He said Lambourne, who is Australian but married to the Kiribati opposition leader Tessie Lambourne, has been unable to return to the country, unable to practise as a judge, may be bound by a limited term contract rather than a life appointment, and his salary may have been withheld.
Speer said this is contrary to what are known as the Latimer House principles on the independence of the judiciary.
A huge backlog of cases, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, has been worsened by the action taken against the two expatriate judges.
Meanwhile a lawyer for Hastings, who served as New Zealand's chief censor for many years, has no comment to make on the suspension.
RNZ Pacific has asked the Kiribati Government for a response.