By Staff Writer
The Attorney General’s Office is in a ‘wait and see’ mode for the outcome of a request to extradite Talalelei Pauga from Australia to face charges of an alleged plot to murder the Prime Minister.
Attorney General Savalenoa Mareva Betham-Annandale confirmed the request from her office but is unaware of the progress of the legal process underway in Australia.
“I can confirm the request we made for extradition but these things are usually long and tricky,” Attorney General Savalenoa explained.
“ We will be officially informed when a decision is made and we will then consider actions to take.”
An Australia Association Press news report said the 45-year-old Talalelei Pauga was arrested and detained on 20 August 2020 in Brisbane, Australia.
He was held in custody when the request for extradition came through from Samoa.
The Brisbane Magistrate court is to rule this week on Friday whether to release him or not.
“The charges are serious. They involve an allegation of conspiracy to murder. “Specifically, conspiracy to murder the Samoan prime minister,” Marc McKechnie a lawyer acting for Samoa told the Brisbane Magistrates Court at the start of the week.
“Samoa has made a lawful extradition request and Australia has obligations under international law to comply with that extradition request.”
A team of defence lawyers for Pauga told the court they will fight the extradition application.
First, they’ve applied for him to be released from custody saying he had not been charged with an offence in Australia.
“He’s been in custody at least a month and that’s a long time for a man with a family and a business,” lawyer George Mancini said.
A court date is yet to be fixed to hear the extradition application.
Pauga and two other men charged with the alleged conspiracy are also reportedly members of a political activist group Samoa Solidarity International Group, SSIG.
Outside of court, SSIG president Malo Vaimoso said the allegations against Pauga were politically motivated.
“We’re being targeted by the prime minister because we’ve raised human rights issues and are suing his government for breaching the constitution,” she told AAP.
Ms Vaimoso said an SSIG affiliated political party, named Samoa First, was also set to run against Mr Malielegaoi’s Human Rights Protection Party in the March election.
Pauga is already a known figure in Samoa as the thrower of a pigs-head at the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi during a visit to Brisbane in November 2018.
