Adviser slams Tonga government over ferry inquiry

Tonga's top legal adviser quit his post Friday, claiming the government was trying to subvert an inquiry into the South Pacific nation's worst maritime disaster that has been highly critical of officials.

Seventy-four people died in the Aug. 5 disaster, which a royal commission of inquiry has blamed on the decision to send an unseaworthy vessel to sea packed with passengers.

Attorney General John Cauchi said the independence of his role and of Tonga's judges had been stripped away and most of his responsibilities handed to either the Cabinet or the justice minister.

"The action of the government against my role and the independent judiciary has meant that my resignation is the best way for me to show that the government's interest in independence is a highly qualified one," Cauchi said in a statement.

A Cabinet decision not to support his appointment of two senior foreign lawyers to prosecute issues arising from last year's sinking of the ferry Princess Ashika was "spurious," he said, also criticizing recent government moves to bypass normal procedures and appoint a judge directly.

The government's "hand selection of judges" could mean people would not be held responsible for their actions over the ferry tragedy, and the failure to support the independent prosecutors "means at the very least interference in the independent prosecutorial system," he told New Zealand's National Radio.

Three people have been charged by police with manslaughter in connection to the sinking, and findings of the commission blamed senior government and state shipping officials.

There was no immediate response from the Tongan government, with senior spokesmen in Prime Minister Fred Sevele's office unavailable. There was no reply to e-mail requests seeking to clarify whether the appointments of the two independent prosecutors were to be terminated.

Police investigations into the royal commission's findings are continuing, and Cauchi vowed last month that the independent prosecutors would pursue all of its ultimate findings even if they led to the prime minister's office.

Cauchi said then that Cabinet ministers, former ministers and even Sevele, accused by the royal commission of withholding documents from the inquiry, could be implicated in future prosecutions.

On Friday, Cauchi alleged the government had attempted to have the commission's terms of reference modified before its damning final report was released to media early this month.