Transcript
AUTAGAVAIA TIPI AUTAGAVAIA: There were a number of rumours last month about charges to be laid against the Police Commissioner, and the outcome of these charges is from the national prosecution was a report of a Commission of Inquiry carried out by the Ombudsman where a complaint was lodged by a man who sold foodstuffs, agriculture products and other stuff at one of the markets in town. He is the man accused by police of possession of narcotics and that raid was carried out in August last year. And after that police released the man because they had no evidence that he was the suspect, and then the man filed a complaint to the Ombudsman, and the inquiry found out that this act was unlawful and they carried out the raid without a search warrant, and the rights of this man had been violated by the actions of the police. The raid involved the Police Commissioner, and also police officers involved in the raid were also armed.
SALLY ROUND: When was the Samoan Police Commissioner served with these criminal charges?
ATA: He left the country two weeks ago, and I understand he returned last Friday, the day the national prosecution office finalised the charges and waited for his return to serve the charges. Those charges were served to the Police Commissioner at his office on the same day the police arrested the director of the public prosecution office.
SR: These two people, very senior, arrested within an hour of each other. Was the Commissioner arrested or just charged?
ATA: He was not arrested, just charged and summoned.
SR: Is it a coincidence that these people were both charged on the same day.
ATA: Well, it was so interesting, I mean, it happened on the same day and same time but the National Prosecution Office told me they laid the charges against the Commissioner last week, and they were just waiting for him to return so they could serve him.
SR: Because it looks on the face of it as a tit-for-tat charging going on here.
ATA: Yeah, you could say that it's tit-for-tat. I think it's really sad, coming from the Police Commissioner himself, and also against the public prosecution. I don't know the Prime Minister and the Government are looking at these two cases. But I have a copy of a letter to the prime minister by the acting police commissioner last week on this case and in this letter, the acting police commissioner has recommended that the case against the Director of the Public Prosecution to be settled.
