Prosecution Lawyer urges General Court Martial that Sergeant Tulele be a sounding message to would be offenders

Prosecution Lawyer Aisea Paka has asked the General Court Martial that the sentence in the case of Staff Sergeant Iowane Naivalurua Tulele be a sounding message to would be offenders in the institution.

Staff Sergeant Tulele has been charged with 32 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

Paka told the General Court Martial that Tulele was the principal offender in this case and he was given the responsibility to protect the RFMF funds.

He also urged that the court martial to consider that the sentence be the same from the civil court that has a tariff for this offence as 10 years.

Paka also told the court that Tulele did not make any attempt to repay the money and was motivated by greed.

He says that Tulele used the public funds as if it was a withdrawal machine.

Meanwhile, Commanding Officer of the Force Training Group Petero Talemaivatuwiri took the stand as a character witness today.

Defence lawyer Filimoni Vosarogo has urged the court martial to consider the character description of Tulele given by his Commanding Officer, Talemaivatuwiri in the court martial today.

Vosarogo says that Tulele is a first time offender and for the court to also consider that Tulele has a family of 5 children.

He also told the court martial that the sentence should be determined by each count.

Vosarogo urged the court that the deterrence should be individual and not general in this case.

He says that if the court martial were to adopt the law in the civil court in respect to sentencing and if the court sentence the accused to 2 years and below, than it has the power to give a suspended sentence.

Vosarogo urged the court to look into giving a suspended sentence.

The court was also presented with Tulele’s Service Report.

Tulele had pleaded not guilty to his charges before the General Court Martial.

The incidents happened between the 8th of October 2015 to the 11th of February 2016 at Berkley Crescent.

The amount involved is close to $40,000.

The case will be called on Monday for sentencing.