By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – David Lambourne, an Australian-born Excessive Court docket choose whose aborted deportation two years in the past from Kiribati sparked a judicial disaster within the Pacific Islands nation, appeared in court docket on Tuesday, in a case intently watched by the United Nations and worldwide authorized teams.
Lambourne, who has lived in Kiribati for 30 years and is married to Opposition chief Tessie Lambourne, faces deportation if he loses a Excessive Court docket problem to Kiribati president Taneti Maamau’s try to sack him. Kiribati will maintain nationwide elections later this 12 months.
Lambourne has been residing in Kiribati and not using a visa or wage since 2022 when Maamau suspended him, after which suspended all three Court docket of Attraction judges and the chief justice after they dominated Lambourne shouldn’t be deported.
One try at pressured deportation amid authorized proceedings in August 2022 failed when a Fiji Airways pilot refused to just accept Lambourne on the aircraft towards his will.
“Right this moment’s case includes the federal government’s persevering with assault on the rule of regulation,” Lambourne’s barrister Perry Herzfeld advised the court docket by video hyperlink from Sydney, pointing to what he mentioned have been problems with judicial independence.
Maamau had appointed a brand new tribunal to analyze Lambourne on an “extraordinarily expedited timetable” with plans handy a report back to parliament subsequent month, Herzfeld mentioned. Lambourne’s authorized group solely learnt days in the past of the existence of the tribunal, he added.
Not one of the allegations made towards Lambourne – together with a disputed declare he took too lengthy to make judgements – justified the president forming a tribunal to analyze his elimination from workplace, he mentioned.
It was additionally “deadly” beneath the structure that the tribunal doesn’t embrace a judicial officer, he added.
Kiribati’s deputy solicitor-general Monoo Mweretaka argued in court docket the allegations towards Lambourne have been severe, and there was no requirement within the structure for the tribunal to supply him procedural equity.
There was additionally no definition of judicial workplace within the structure, so it shouldn’t be restricted to legally skilled officers, he added.
In a letter to Kiribati in September 2023, Margaret Satterthwaite, U.N. Particular Rapporteur on the independence of judges and legal professionals, mentioned she was “significantly alarmed” on the sequence of suspensions of judges, which left Kiribati and not using a functioning Excessive Court docket or Court docket of Attraction to behave as a examine on the ability of parliament.
The letter additionally raised considerations that Lambourne’s therapy and the dearth of a judicial officer on the tribunal may breach human rights requirements.
An interim visa issued to Lambourne in January expires when a judgement is delivered by the court docket.
Excessive Court docket commissioner Aomoro Amten on Tuesday reserved his judgement.
Kiribati’s parliament sits for a last session subsequent month, earlier than dissolving in Could forward of nationwide elections.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Modifying by Lincoln Feast.)