After five years of allegations, rumours and online abuse surrounding the unsolved 2021 Vaitele hit-and-run death, the Supreme Court has made a series of unequivocal observations that should put to rest the unsubstantiated allegations against Faleata 3 Member of Parliament, Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi.
The Supreme Court this week dismissed Lealailepule’s application to review the Attorney-General’s decision not to appeal the acquittals of Prime Minister Hon La‘aulialemalietoa Polataivao Fosi Schmidt and two other defendants in the high-profile criminal case arising from allegations made against the Faleata MP.
While dismissing Lealailepule’s application, Justice Harrison also used a Postscript to his 9 September judgment to address the impact the long-running allegations have had on Lealailepule and his family.
The Judge stressed that Lealailepule “has never been charged, let alone convicted” and instead he faced “years of unsubstantiated rumour” relating to the 2021 death of a young man at Vaitele.
He noted that the District Court had found Fauega’s allegations portraying Lealailepule as a murderer to be false, with the relevant defamation charges proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Harrison acknowledged the personal consequences of the allegations for Lealailepule and his family and noted that the District Court had found Samuelu Fauega’s allegations portraying Lealailepule as a murderer to be false, with the relevant defamation charges proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Lealailepule told the Court that the acquittals arising from the subsequent criminal prosecution had been detrimental to him, that he and his family had endured online and in-person harassment.
Lealailepule first entered Parliament 30 years ago at the 2006 general elections, and the long serving MP said his reputation and three decades of public service had been overshadowed by the allegations.
Justice Harrison said, “I acknowledge Mr. Aiafi’s distress. He has never been charged, let alone convicted, of a criminal offence relating to the 2021 death of a young man.”
“He has instead been the subject of unsubstantiated rumour, mainly online, and, as he said, for him there is no end,” said Justice Harrison.
Justice Harrison pointed back to findings already made by Senior District Court Judge Talasa Atoa Sa‘aga.
“Her finding was to the criminal standard of proof of falsity beyond reasonable doubt,” he said, adding that “this was reinforced by her emphatic rejection of a most improper submission made by a defence counsel that Mr. Aiafi was guilty of murder.”
The District Court had found that statements made by Samuelu Leau Fauega portraying Lealailepule as a murderer, were defamatory — false and knowingly so.
“I find that the comments made against [Mr Aiafi] as a murderer are false,” the District Court found, with the defamation charges against Sam proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Harrison said Lealailepule now had the benefit of that finding, made to the criminal standard of proof, reinforced by the District Court’s rejection of the submission that he was guilty of murder.
“However, Mr. Aiafi now has the benefit of the District Court Judge’s finding that he was defamed by Mr. Fauega’s online statements on two separate occasions.”
Justice Harrison also observed that after Sam approached then Associate Minister of Police Fepuleai Faimata Su‘a in 2023 with allegations implicating Lealailepule, Fepuleai informed La‘aulialemalietoa.
Justice Harrison noted that Hon Laaulialemalietoa had instructed Inspector Lio Faataumalama in 2023 to conduct a private investigation into Samuelu Leau Fauega’s allegations.
The Supreme Court judge describes the private investigation as “characterised by comically clandestine machinations,” but makes it clear that the acquittals were inevitable and the actions of Hon Laaulialemalietoa were not criminal.
Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa at the time, had said he sought only to find justice and truth in what happened that night that led to the NUS students death.
Harrison stated “But even on the most optimistic prosecutorial view, their conduct, while foolhardy and unconstitutional, did not approach the threshold of criminality,” stated Justice Harrison.
“The acquittals of Messrs Fepuleai, Faataumalama and Schmidt were inevitable,” he states.
“An appeal against inevitable acquittals would inevitably fail, serving no purpose except to add to the wastage of public resources which have already been incurred.”
The Judge also said Lealailepule himself compounded the situation by making his own complaint to Police.
“Both Mr. Schmidt’s actions and Mr. Aiafi’s reaction were ill-advised in the extreme.”
The comments provide perhaps the clearest judicial summary to date of where Lealailepule stands after five years of public allegations arising from the 2021 tragedy: he was never charged over the death, the accusations portraying him as a murderer were judicially found to be false beyond reasonable doubt, and the Supreme Court has now expressly reaffirmed those findings.
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