Eleven (11) of the convicted jailed Vanuatu politicians have again been found guilty of conspiring to defeat the court of justice under section 79 of the Penal Code.,
Mr Justice Chetwynd declared their convictions in a half-an-hour verbal judgement late yesterday afternoon. He made the ruling after going through the final submissions of the prosecution and defence counsels.
The judge stated that the defendants in the case, Marcelino Pipite, Tony Nari, Jean-Yve Chapod, Jonas James, John Amos, Arnold Prasad, Paul Telukluk, Silas Yatan, Antony Wright, Thomas Laken, Pascal Iauko and lawyer, Wilson Iauma, were in agreement with each other to defeat the course of justice.
They were convicted to have conspired to defeat the course of justice soon after their conviction in the bribery case, the first ever biggest case involving many government members at one time.
The purported pardoning by the then acting President Marcelino Pipite, took place when the defendants were waiting for their sentencing.
Following arguments put to the court that some of the defendants were not present at meetings to discuss the issue of pardon, Justice Chetwynd clarified that the concept of conspiracy does not need all to be present at the same time.
He said what is important is if they were in agreement to establish the offence.
In response to arguments that the defendants had not requested their pardoning, and letters to confirm their agreement did not show up in court the judge said there is also no evidence to show that the defendants had refused the pardon.
With regard to the credibility of the information provided by the lawyers who had testified for the prosecution, the Supreme Court Judge said their testimonies had been verified by other independent witnesses.
Those convicted are yet to be sentenced on 29 September 2016 at 9am.
Photo: One of the meetings was held here