Vanuatu Supreme Court will this morning resume hearing on the conspiracy case involving former politicians, who are serving prison sentences of between 3 and 4 years for corruption.
Four defense counsels will continue to fight their case by putting witnesses in the witness box to try to prove the innocence of the accused.
Yesterday, former acting head of State and former Speaker, Marcelino Pipite, former Climate Change Minister, Thomas Laken and former Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Silas Yatan were cross examined.
Their defensive arguments were either that they were acting in belief that the decisions made at the time were lawful, were merely in accordance to the advice of their lawyers or did not know something now alleged to be illegal, was happening.
Prosecution had last week done its best to prove to the court that the accused did conspire to defeat the course of justice when they collaborated in the illegal pardoning through two separate meetings, one at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities and the other at the Mangos Resort.
The court hearing continues today from 9am.(local time)
Photo: Lawyers outside the court house