Tonga Prisons Department wishes to correct the media misinformation suggesting that Prisoner Etuate Lavulavu’s Leave of Absence was approved to attend a meeting with Ports Authority Tonga on behalf of Inter Pacific Ltd.
We would like to clarify that Prisoner Lavulavu’s LOA was not approved to attend a meeting on behalf of IPL with PAT. As per our records, Prisoner Lavulavu’s LOA was granted under section 46 (e) of the Prisons Act (The Act) based on his legal counsel and doctor’s recommendation.
On 14 June 2022, Prisoner Lavulavu’s LOA was revoked under 47(2) of The Act after receiving the alleged breach above an investigation was launched on the same date. Prisons reviewed information received, Prisoner Lavulavu’s appointment was 7 minutes.
It is Prisons statutory duty as per section 2 of The Act to “….aid in crime prevention through the humane containment, supervision and rehabilitation of persons sentenced by the courts to a term of imprisonment.” As such, Prisoner Lavulavu will not be discriminated against on political grounds. Further still, Prisons does not take doctors’ advice lightly as we are not medical professionals to make a proper medical opinion on the contrary, to ignore would be otherwise negligent on our part.
Prisons respects the Courts right to information about prisoners leave policies and the conditions of prison where they sentence to imprisonment for the purpose of making the right judgement.
We do not have any records that the media contacted our office to clarify the above allegation before discriminating it to the public. We encourage the media to contact our office and conduct due diligence prior to publishing any misleading information that may bring our reputation into dispute.
Prisons supports the initiative to establish an Anti-Corruption Commissioner to investigate present, future and past corruptions against Kingdom of Tonga.