Australian Federal Police

The partnership has been behind some of the Samoan Police service’s continued growth the Savali newspaper reports.

The Acting Commissioner, Auapaau Logoitino FIlipo congratulated the Police Services for Samoa in being able to sign the partnership agreement calling it a continued step forward for Samoa’s growing police.

“As we all know, the Australian Federal Police is one of our key partners, and have been a great part of the driving force behind our services constant growth in the past years,” he said.

Talalelei Pauga has been in custody in Queensland since August last year after the Samoan government requested his extradition on a charge of conspiring to murder the former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

His lawyer Greg Finlayson says Pauga complained to the AFP about the length of time it took to bring him before a magistrate after his arrest.

"He was arrested on the 20th of August 2020 and he was kept away from his lawyers and in confinement until the first time he was brought before a magistrate ... on the 21st of September," Finlayson said.

Australian Federal Police say the 33-year-old man is one of two men arrested on board a yacht carrying a tonne of the illicit drug also known as P.

Police say the haul has an estimated street value of up to $A750 million ($NZ789m).

The yacht was intercepted off the New South Wales coast near Lake Macquarie, after an international sting involving agencies from Australia, New Caledonia and the United Kingdom.

AFP representative, Peter Timson, declined to comment on reports they had threatened to pull out over an incident at the station when the Police Commissioner, Fuiavaiiliili Egon Keil, was arrested and charged.

The Samoa Observer was told by a reliable source that A.F.P officials had tried to intervene to speak to Fuiava but they were threatened. 

Asked for a comment Timson said: “We are still in Samoa and we are not leaving. 

“There are a lot of people that you can talk to about what happened. But I cannot comment at this stage.”

A cohort of 30 police officers from 11 Pacific countries are attending the training workshop to help them understand violence against women and to deal sensitively with such cases.

 Police officers attending the Fourth Police Regional Training Program discussed sexual harassment and rape as part of the two-week workshop. 

The workshop funded by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and facilitated by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) focused on how gender relations had changed in Pacific communities but also on the many barriers that remained.

The participants shared the experiences in their police stations and communities about the kinds of violence and barriers women continue to face. Some participants continued to believe that women brought the violence on themselves by nagging or not obeying their husbands. 

A spokeswoman for the force told Fairfax Media that the cases had happened before this year. The officers were treated and do not appear to be showing any lasting effects of the mosquito-borne virus, which is currently the subject of a World Health Organisation-declared emergency after being linked to birth defects.