Eleven former Vanuatu MPs cleared of convictions for conspiring to pervert the course of justice could be facing a retrial.
The convicted former MP and former Speaker of Parliament Marcellino Pipite. Photo: Hilaire Bule
The Court of Appeal in Vanuatu on Friday quashed the convictions of the 11 jailed former MPs one of whom in October 2015 controversially used his acting presidential powers to pardon himself and the ten other then MPs of bribery convictions.
The Vanuatu Daily Post reported that the Court of Appeal ruling said the main reason for overturning their convictions was that it felt the trial judge at the time should have tried them as a group of people committing a single offence and not as individuals committing multiple offences.
A police van arrives at Vanuatu's correctional facility carrying the arrested MPs. Photo: RNZI / Hilaire Bule
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The appeal court judgement however also said it was now up to the public prosecutor to consider whether to lay the charges again for a retrial, since the ruling did not declare them innocent.
The Vanuatu Daily Post's media director Dan McGarry said the judgement had been overshadowed by Cyclone Cook which was passed through Vanuatu over the weekend.
He said the office of the public prosecutor in Vanuatu was yet to indicate whether it would be pursuing a retrial.
"You know nobody is getting out of jail as a result of this although...if there is no retrial some of them will face much shorter sentences than originally thought. And that also means that they would be eligible for parole because they are approaching the halfway point of their sentence," Mr McGarry said.