Bribery conviction

Former Tonga police officer convicted after demanding bribe of TOP$640

Pita Vakalahi was charged with one count of demanding a bribe on 27 October 2019 at the Nuku’alofa Central Police Station while working as a member of Tonga Police

Kaniva News reports Vakalahi demanded $640 from Sinai Lelea who was also known by the name Sinai Lefai Mafile’o, 23, as an inducement not to charge her with traffic offences.

Justice Laki Niu said Mafile’o’s evidence was corroborated by the Tonga Communications Corporation records and by answers given by the accused himself in his evidence.  

Ex-policeman sentenced for bribery in Tonga

Fanguna Alalea pleaded guilty to a charge of offering a bribe to a member of the Tongan police.

At the time he was an officer from Tu’atakilangi.

According to Kaniva News, on July 13 last year Constable Tu’amelie Fifita, a member of the Drugs Enforcement Taskforce was talking with members of his family in front of the old yacht club on Vuna Rd when he was approached by Alalea.

Alalea told Fifita he was looking for somebody willing to do a job in exchange for money for a drug dealer.