Samoa Police will not prosecute the case against a woman who alleges the Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa is connected to the high profile murder of academic and writer Dr. Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard in May 2024.
Instead, the case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.
Talamua Online reports the defendant, Lise Marie Schmidt, represented by lawyer Tanya Toailoa, appeared before District Court Judge Talasa Saaga on Tuesday.
Police referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Office, who appointed lawyer Magele Leone Su’a Mailo, to prosecute given the relationship between some of the witnesses and police.
Judge Saaga granted a continuance to June 3 for the prosecution to finalize the charges against the defendant who has yet to enter a plea.
Police charged Schmidt in March following a letter she wrote to the Attorney General and copied to the Minister of Police and Police Commissioner that made serious allegations of the Prime Minister’s involvement in the death of Dr. Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard.
She alleged having conversations and meetings with the Prime Minister and claimed she was instructed to retrieve evidence allegedly connected to the death.
Schmidt was charged after a police investigation and Police Commissioner Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said the claims were unsubstantiated and could not be verified.
The defendant, however, said she was never investigated by the police regarding her allegations.
The Prime Minister told a recent press conference the police had concluded their investigation and the allegations were untrue, and she would not waste her time pursuing it.
