David Lambourne, standing right, sworn in as second the Judge to the High Court - Botaki ni Kabowi I Kiribati. 15 July 2024 Photo: Facebook / New Zealand High Commission to Kiribati
A years' long legal wrangle in Kiribati that is keeping a judge separated from his family remains unresolved.
Australian expatriate David Lambourne was a High Court judge in Kiribati but was suspended by the government in 2022.
The government of Taneti Maamau claimed Lambourne had deliberately withheld judgement in a case it had brought.
They also claim he was motivated, at least partly, because his wife, Tessie Lambourne, had just become the leader of the opposition in Kiribati.
Lambourne has been living in Australia, separated from his family, for the past year, after leaving knowing the government was about to deport him.
Four years of legal to-and-fro have also seen the departure of a number of eminent New Zealand judges from Kiribati.
They included Chief Justice Bill Hastings, who lasted less than a year in the post before he was suspended for ruling in Lambourne's favour.
Three Court of Appeal judges - Sir Peter Blanchard, Rodney Hansen, and Paul Heath - who had upheld Chief Justice Hastings' ruling, were also suspended.
They were collectively accused of misdemeanours and a Tribunal was set up to investigate three years ago but no report has ever been tabled in parliament.
Lambourne was formally removed from his puisne judge post in April 2024, after being suspended two years earlier.
His salary has been withheld since.
He finally got another Court of Appeal hearing last December, and its judgement, released just this week, allows him to seek further redress in the High Court.
The appeal judges upheld that the government's establishment of a Tribunal, which had recommended his suspension, was valid.
However, it also allowed Lambourne's appeal against the Tribunal Commissioner's refusal to grant leave to challenge the validity of its report, and has sent the matter back to the High Court, where the issue can be fully heard.
The Court also dismissed the government's appeal against the Commissioner's finding that it had acted unlawfully by ordering that Lambourne's salary be withheld during the suspension period.
