Jail for Vanuatu lawmakers who pardoned selves: report

A group of Vanuatu lawmakers who tried to overturn their own bribery convictions with hastily issued pardons were reportedly jailed Thursday for up to four years. The 14 lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses and parliamentary speaker Marcellino Pipite, were sentenced in Port Vila's Supreme Court, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio New Zealand International said. It was the latest twist in a corruption scandal that has rocked the impoverished Pacific island nation and left its government hanging by a thread. The constitutional crisis began on October 9, when the 14 lawmakers were convicted on bribery charges. President Baldwin Lonsdale was overseas at the time and Pipite, using his powers as acting president, issued pardons for himself and his co-conspirators, arguing it was for the good of the country. But an angry Baldwin overturned the pardons on his return, vowing in a televised address "to clean up the mess". Most of the parliamentarians were arrested and the courts this week said Pipite's actions were unconstitutional. Carcasses was reportedly jailed for four years and the others received three-year terms. A 15th lawmaker, Willy Jimmy, who had pleaded guilty at the bribery trial, received a 20-month suspended sentence, Radio NZ reported. The Vanuatu Daily Post said Carcasses' lawyer indicated he would appeal the sentence. The newspaper said a crowd of up to 500 people gathered at the Supreme Court for the sentencing. "They were quiet, calm, respectful. It appeared they simply wanted to bear witness to this moment in their country's history," it said. The original bribery allegations centred on payments of 35 million vatu (US$312,000) made by Carcasses to 13 other politicians last year while they were all in opposition. The government of Prime Minister Sato Kilman has only been in power since June. The Pacific archipelago, which has a population of around a quarter of a million people, is still recovering from a deadly category five storm in March that destroyed homes and crops and contaminated water supplies.