Eleven former Vanuatu MPs cleared of convictions for conspiring to pervert the course of justice could be facing a retrial.
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 than 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.
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.