22 Aug 2018

Samoan attorney general, police sued over OLP arrest

9:21 am on 22 August 2018

A Samoan woman who was arrested under suspicion that she was social media blogger O Le Palemia has filed a $US344,000 lawsuit against the Ministry of Police, three officers and the attorney general.

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Photo: 123rf

Talamua Online reported that Katerina Maria Lesatele was arrested in April 2017 on suspicion of being connected to the OLP blog.

She was reportedly initially detained at the police headquarters in Apia for a day and when she was released, the police requested to further detain her until their investigation was completed.

She was then reportedly detained at Tafa'igata prison for five days.

According to Talamua Online, Lesatele said that the police had been after her since 2015 claiming that she knew who OLP was, but it was not until April last year that she was arrested.

She said the police wanted her to tell them who OLP was and where he could be found, and she denied any knowledge of it.

Last year, police filed two charges against her that were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

The matter has been adjourned until 27 August .