Kiribati deport bid politically motivated, says judge

An Australian citizen who served as a senior judge in Kiribati says the government abandoned the rule of law when they tried to remove him from the small Pacific nation.

An Australian citizen who served as a senior judge in Kiribati says government officials abandoned the rule of law after they tried to deport him from the Pacific country following a dramatic stand-off at Bonriki International Airport.

David Lambourne, who has been a resident of the Pacific nat­ion for almost three decades and served on the Kiribati High Court, said he was issued a deportation notice and escorted to the airport in Kiribati‘s capital, Tarawa, on Thursday morning.

It comes after the government issued an explosive statement earlier this week alleging the distinguished jurist had breached the conditions of his visitor’s visa, engaged in misconduct as a judge of the Kiribati High Court and posed a significant security risk to the country.

On Friday, the 55-year-old’s legal team secured two separate court orders halting his deportation, as government authorities escorted him on to a Fiji Airlines flight, whose pilot refused to fly the judge against his will.

Justice Lambourne, whose wife, Tessie Lambourne, is the leader of the country’s opposition party, said the deportation attempt was “politically motivated” and all allegations levelled against him by the Kiribati government were “laughable and without substance … They seem determined to deport me and I imagine a similar attempt will happen again soon” he said less than an hour before he was released from detention on Friday.

“I can only conclude, given there is so little substance behind their attempts to remove me, they are trying to target my wife by getting rid of me.

“They are trying to get her to quit politics because I think their mistaken assumption is that if I’m not allowed to be in Kiribati, she would have to run to my side and leave politics. There is no intention of doing that. That’s not the sort of person she is, or I am.”

Justice Lambourne won a High Court claim against the Kiribati government in December after it refused to let him return to the Pacific country and sought to end his tenure on the High Court.

The father of five returned to Kiribati on August 1 after being stranded in Australia for more than two years.

He described the deportation attempt as “bizarre” because many of the officials who escorted him to the airport were acquaintances and even friends. “The erosion of the rule of law and the government’s lack of respect for the judiciary probably started back in 2018,” he said.

Following six hours of detention at a motel near the airport, Justice Lambourne was released and allowed to return home.