The Solomon Islands government has sacked controversial attorney general Julian Moti and taken steps to deport him to Australia where he is wanted on child sex charges, officials said yesterday.
Moti, an Australian citizen, was dismissed from his post after he lost a legal battle to stay in the country.
"He has now received his termination papers," a spokesman for the prime minister's office said.
The government chief of staff Mathew Wale told Radio New Zealand that Moti would be deported within a week.
COURT RULING
In a weekend High Court hearing, Chief Justice Albert Palmer ruled Moti's right to remain in the Solomon Islands was by virtue of his political appointment and not as an individual.
The new Solomons government of Derek Sikua has pledged to send Moti back to Australia as part of its policy to improve relations with Canberra.
Sikua was elected prime minister of the impoverished South Pacific nation last week shortly after previous leader Manesseh Sogavare lost a confidence vote moved in part because of the nation's deteriorating relations with Australia.
BITTER STANDOFF
Sogavare, who appointed Moti as attorney general, was embroiled in a bitter standoff with Canberra and had refused to hand over Moti who is wanted for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.
However, following the weekend court ruling Moti was dismissed and deportation moves are under way.
THIS WEEK
"It'll be within this week for sure," Wale told Radio New Zealand.
"The exact time and date is up to the authorities and obviously, working with the airlines. We don't have flights every day," he said.
"He doesn't have a passport and we are not terribly worried about that, that is up to his government, the Australian government to consider," Wale said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS