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Author: Raj Keresoma
Apia, Samoa – July 30, 2024 – Chief Justice, the Honourable Satiu Simativa Perese, has dismissed an appeal seeking the recuse of Senior Magistrate Court Judge Talasa Atoa Saaga from hearing the long-running case against Samuellu (Sam) Su’a et al in relation to an unresolved hit-and-run traffic case that occurred in Vaitele in April 2021.
Samuelu was jointly charged with four others, including his wife Sivai Kepi, sacked police inspector Li’o Fa’ataumalama Auava, MPs Fepuleai Fa’asavalu Su’a and Lisemarie Schmidt.
Samuel and Siwai appealed on the grounds that they had no standing to challenge some of Justice Saga’s interpretations in the judgment, which they believed “prejudicialized” the judgment.
Their argument was that Judge Saga and the key police witness in the upcoming case attended the same church.
“With all due respect, I cannot investigate this matter any further,” Chief Justice Perese ruled. “I do not find a legitimate basis for the recusation application, which is first raised as religious interaction/familiarity.”
The appellant also challenged Justice Saaga’s decision on Samuel Lu’s bail, calling it “predetermined and biased”.
“This ground is also hopeless. The bail application was conducted in summary proceedings and the evidence was not tested, but a preliminary assessment must still be made. It is not appropriate to make a final finding of fact based on credibility,” Chief Justice Perese said.
Deprivation of the right to choose a lawyer
All five appellants challenged being deprived of their right to be represented by counsel of their choice.
In previous arguments, the appellants informed the court that they had hired overseas lawyers to assist their local lawyers in the hearing, but that they would not be available until May or June 2025, so they applied to postpone the hearing until next year.
The case was adjourned several times due to applications filed by various parties in the case and Justice Sagar fixed the hearing date as May 20, 2024, which all the lawyers agreed to.
Except for Samuelu and Sivai who informed the court that they had hired overseas lawyers, the others did not do so.
On the day of the scheduled hearing, all the lawyers representing the appellants at the criminal hearing applied for an adjournment until next year.
Judge Saga rejected the application and set the hearing for August 26 to September 27, 2024.
While delivering his judgment on the appeal, Chief Justice Perese noted that the issue of concern at hand was that counsel for the third, fourth and fifth appellants had suggested that the proposed hearing date conflicted with other directions of the Supreme Court.
“This means that if these lawyers cannot appear in court on behalf of appellant clients, these parties will need to hire new lawyers,” he said.
He also pointed out that some cases were pending for a long time at the Supreme Court involving two lawyers representing the appellants.
“I allow the appeal regarding the device and quash the hearing date of August 26, 2024. I remit the matter back to the learned Judge to fix a fresh date for hearing,” Chief Justice Perese said.
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