Media restrictions placed on Tonga ferry case

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A Tongan magistrate has placed media restrictions on court proceedings of a perjury case against Lord Ramsay Dalgety.

Lord Dalgety, a Tongan law lord and former Scottish Queen's Counsel, is secretary of the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia Ltd, owners of the ill-fated ferry Princess Ashika which sank off the coast of Nuku'alofa with the loss of 74 lives on the night of August 5 last year.

He was arrested last Friday and placed under house arrest until a bail hearing yesterday. Police would not go into details of the perjury charge, but it was understood to be related to evidence he gave to the inquiry into the sinking.

Magistrate Sione 'Etika issued an order that "there shall be no media publication of the proceedings of today and onwards relating to the defendant except of what appears on the orders of the court available from the court registry on requests or from counsels".

The magistrate also ordered that, "any publication from these orders shall be exact and strictly limited to what appears on such orders, any representations falling short or beyond that pertaining to mislead the audience and the public shall be deemed contempt of court".

Lord Dalgety's case was adjourned until March 22 for committal proceedings and he was released on bail after being ordered to surrender his passport and all travel documents.

A number of other people face a variety of charges relating to the ferry sinking.

- NZPA