Officials in Vanuatu yesterday arrested 11 renegade lawmakers who last week created a constitutional crisis when one of them pardoned himself and 13 others from corruption convictions.
Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale on Friday took steps to reassert his authority in the South Pacific nation by revoking the 14 pardons.
Within hours, 11 of the men had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defeat the course of justice, according to the Vanuatu Daily Post.
The newspaper said the arrests were sparked by a meeting that 11 of the convicted lawmakers had before issuing the pardons.
Three other convicted lawmakers did not attend the meeting, the newspaper said.
The intrigue began on Oct. 9 when the Vanuatu Supreme Court found parliament speaker Marcellino Pipite and 13 other lawmakers guilty of bribery. A judge said many of the lawmakers had accepted bribes of about 1 million vatu (US$9,000) to help overthrow the previous government.
However, the next day, Pipite signed a pardon for himself and the others. As Lonsdale was traveling abroad, Pipite was the acting head of state at the time.
Pipite told reporters he had signed the pardons in order to maintain stability in the nation of 275,000 people.
The move angered many people in Vanuatu, who had hoped the verdicts would mark an end to the corruption which has plagued the country’s political system.
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