Jury discharged at Tongan ferry trial

The jury in a Tongan manslaughter trial over the sinking of the ferry Princess Ashika has been discharged, after it was discovered one of the jurors has a previous criminal conviction.

A new jury will be selected on Friday and the new trial would start on Monday, Assistant Senior Crown Counsel Sione Sisifa said.

Former Christchurch businessman John Jonesse was among the defendants who had been due to face a jury of four men and three women in Tonga's Supreme Court today.

The Princess Ashika sank in August 2009 while on an overnight voyage from Nuku'alofa to an outlying island, killing 74 people.

The case - in which the shipping corporation itself is also a defendant - will be conducted as a Supreme Court hearing in Parliament House in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, because of the large number of the public expected to attend.

Jonesse, who was the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia's former managing director, was to stand trial along with the ferry captain, first mate and a senior public servant.

They face up to 25 years in jail if convicted.

At a preliminary hearing last year the men pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and additional charges including sending and taking an unseaworthy ship to sea.

Yesterday, charges of sailing without a loadline certificate and for sailing without a safety certificate were withdrawn.

Captain Makahokovalu Tuputupu and the Shipping Corporation each have six charges remaining: one of manslaughter by negligence and five counts for taking an unseaworthy ship to sea. The manslaughter by negligence charge relates to the death of young mother, Vae Fetu'u Taufa - one of only two bodies recovered.

Jonesse, the ferry's first mate Semisi Pomale, and the nation's acting director of marine Viliami Tu'ipulotu face similar charges, though the New Zealander is the only one charged with forgery in relation to an audit report by David Shaw dated April 2009 and with knowingly dealing with a forged document.

Jonesse is on bail and was refused permission by the courts to leave Tonga when his family returned to New Zealand last year.

- NZPA