Incest defendants in court

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 14 July 2017, 12:00AM

A half brother and sister charged with allegations of incest, appeared in the Supreme Court before Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavasue Falefatu Sapolu this week.

The Prosecutor in the case is Leone Su’a – Mailo.

In court, Ms. Su’a asked if the matter could be further adjourned for the prosecution to finalize charges.

 “I thought these were the final charges?” asked Chief Justice.

 However then he added, “This will be the final adjournment of this matter and I will not allow any more adjournments.

“The matter will be recalled next week Monday for the accused to give us a plea in regards to the allegations against them.”

However, the sister’s husband request to the court if his wife could be released on bail for the sake of their children.

“We have four children and our youngest child, who is a year old is still being breastfed while our other three children who are at school are affected because they are missing their mother,” said the husband.

“Therefore I want to ask the court if she can be released on bail for the sake of our children.”

However, Chief Justice denied the request from the husband for bail.

“The request has been denied because of the seriousness of the offense,” said Chief Justice.

“However, this matter will be called again next week Monday for prosecution to finalize the charges and then you can come again before the court and voice your request again as a reminder about the young children.”

Last week,  the Acting Assistant Commissioner, Sala’a Moananu Sala’a revealed that the brother and sister have the same father but different mothers.

“The incident occurred during Mother’s Day this year,” said Sala’a.

“The sister is 34 years old she’s married with children and her brother is 24 so she’s ten years older than him.

“The husband of the 34 year old reported the matter to the police and at the moment the accused are both in custody and will appear in Supreme Court on the 3rd of July.”

Moreover, Sala’a said the father of the pair would also be charged if the investigation confirms that he knew about the incident.

“The penalty for this kind of crime is imprisonment for not more than 20 years,” he said.

“This is a very serious offence and we cannot tolerate this kind of thing because it goes against our beliefs.

“It’s very hard to accept it because we are a country that is founded on God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.

“This kind of behaviour is unacceptable and it’s disgusting.

“We have values and our culture clearly states this. The whole of Samoa cannot and will not, accept this kind of behavior.”

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 14 July 2017, 12:00AM
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