New Zealand's court system should "educate itself" on the Samoan ritual of Ifoga forgiveness when sentencing Samoans for violent crime, says a community leader, Fa'amatuainu Tino Pereira.
On Monday, a Samoan minister and his wife were sentenced to two years in prison after admitting 22 counts of assault, neglect and cruelty over two years against eight adopted or foster children in their care.
That Ifoga had occurred and family differences resolved the "Samoan way" was a key part of submissions made to the judge by family members at the sentencing.
Fuimaona Tuiasau, for the mother, said that in three family meetings the couple had apologised "for the pain and suffering they had endured" and asked the children for forgiveness.
At the last one, following a "passionate plea," one of the children accepted on the others' behalf.
Mr Pereira, who chairs the Samoan Advisory Council, said the use of Ifoga was not really appropriate in this case because it involved children.
Nevertheless, it should not be disregarded by judges. The court system needed to look to other ways of sentencing, he said. Ignorance of the ritual in courts threatened its existence.
It could be a basis for judges to consider alternatives to prison, and look to sentences which might benefit the Samoan community.
Ifoga was traditionally used in cases of extreme violence, Mr Pereira said. The chief of the offender's family would go to the home of the victim's family and kneel, for up to a day, before forgiveness occurred or he was killed. But, such killings happened rarely now.
This week's two-year jail sentence was an appropriate deterrent, he said.
Sentencing, Judge Craig Thompson said he took into account that Ifoga had occurred to reconcile the family, but he viewed it as parallel to the legal process.
- NZPA
Samoans call for courts to 'forgive'
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