In the previous post, ‘Thou shall not fall into the chasm of disobeying the rule of law‘, technical difficulties were encountered in incorporating the interview by Dr. Susan Merrell. This has now been rectified. Listen to what he has to say.
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I always had a lot of respect for Dr Merrell, however the interview she did with Mr. Salmon failed to answer some crucial questions:
1. Why was Moti accused in the first place?
2. Who filed the report with the police in the first place?
3. Why when interviewed by reporters at that time Ms Salmon(daughter) said Moti is
a good man ?
4. Why, did Mr Salmon agree to help the Australians ?, only because he was offered a huge amount of money?
5. Mr Salmon was never offered the money. He negotiated a deal, which included all members of his family be paid an allowance by the Australian Government. He was prepared to lie for money then? He ruined a man’s life. Where was his compassion, his truth, his honour?
6. If Miss Salmon had gotten pregnant by Mr Moti it would have been the biggest money spinner for Mr Salmon. It is “rumoured”, Miss Salmon was raped by her father. She had accused her own father of this crime, yet she had said in the very beginning that Moti was a good man. This is contradictory, because, Mr Salmon said his daughter accused Mr Moti.
7. To know the real story, Dr Merrell should some serious investigating. She needs to know the monster Mr. Salmom was. What he did to his girls. Go to New Caledonia, Port Vila, and Santo. Talk to people who have known this family when they first came to town. Mr Salmon is a master at manipulating. Go to the source of it all. Find those people who dealt with this mastermind, how he sold his daughters for money and told them it was their duty to look after the family. The lies the girls told was to help the family.
8. His reason to give that interview was not to set the record straight but to clear his name and blame someone else, his juvenile daughter and the AFP because money stopped coming.
9. Dr. Merrell do the right thing, tell a story that is “real”
10. Do something right for the victim, Miss Salmon.
Hi Monique,
Thank you for your response in which you raise some interesting and important points. One of the ‘mysteries’ of the Moti affair is who made the first allegations against him and for what purpose. The original allegations from what I have been able to establish by talking to others were in themselves politically motivated. Australia opportunistically jumped on the ‘band-wagon’ when it appeared likely that he would be appointed Attorney-General of the Solomon Islands. There really does need to be some serious research done how Moti came to be where he is. While exposing individuals is one thing and one thing that needs to be done, the really issue is Australia and the juggernaut of greed’. Moti to my mind was/is a victim of institutional greed and non-accountability. The roots of these have always been present in Australia; Howard however made virtues out of these vices.
Cheers
Bakchos
Dear Bakchos,
It is not a mystery who made the first allegation, do “real” research and you will find out it was Mr. Salmon. At that point Miss Salmon was giving interviews saying what a wonderful man Moti was.
SMH Oct 7,2007
Strange case against fugitive lawyer Julian Moti
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October 7, 2006
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
A shaky case puts Australia at odds with three nations, write David Marr and Marian Wilkinson.
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VANUATU court documents show the case against fugitive lawyer Julian Moti, being sought by the Australian Government, contains serious weaknesses.
Though the girl at the centre of the case has made graphic and disturbing allegations of a relationship with Moti when she was aged 13, a Vanuatu court decided he had no case to answer.
The pursuit of Moti has created a diplomatic crisis in the Pacific. The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has attacked the justice systems of three nations: the Solomon Islands for proposing to appoint Moti as Attorney General; Papua New Guinea for botching his extradition; and Vanuatu for not having “brought to justice” the lawyer over child sex charges.
Vanuatu courts threw out the charges against him in 1999. The proceedings involved a number of distinguished visiting judges: John Von Doussa, now the president of Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bruce Robertson, the president of the New Zealand Law Commission, and Daniel Fatiaki now Chief Justice of Fiji.
Moti had been running a legal practice in Vanuatu. In December 1997, a 13-year-old girl alleged to the Ombudsman that she had been living with him from May to October that year; that she was beaten by him; raped; became pregnant and “had an abortion against my will”.
The Herald has seen six disturbing statements she made
over the next four months. All are in English, though it appears she only spoke French. None was in her own writing. None was sworn. The underlying story doesn’t change from statement to statement, but details are contradictory. Others appear fanciful.
She claimed he had three testicles, but Port Vila GP Dr Frank Spooner would later examine Moti and concluded he had two.
The statements present a number of other difficulties for any prosecution of Moti. Dates are changed; at one stage she withdrew her allegations entirely, then renewed them a few weeks later saying her previous statement was “not of my own free will” and asked police to investigate.
In several statements she described being beaten and raped by Moti but in others that she loved him. “I wanted to say that I love Julian Moti very much,” she stated in March 1998. “He is a reach [rich] man he can take me anywhere I wanted and this is my belief of my future with Julian because he is so kind … ”
Moti was arrested in Vanuatu in 1998 and charged with several counts of unlawful sexual intercourse. A magistrate ordered him to stand trial. But the following year the overseas judges sitting on the Court of Appeal sent the case back to another magistrate.
Hi Monique, I’ve only just discovered this posting, so better late than never.
Firstly, some of the things you want to know were answered by Mr Salmon. Moti was accused because the family thought that he was instrumental in the order to deport the family, said Salmon. My information is that the alleged victim and her mother reported to the ombudsman (going back to an excuse not to be deported – attacking the supposed source of their misfortune – mistakenly) who then reported to the police, I believe Salmon said he was out of the country, at the time. Moti had been at loggerheads over many things with that ombudsman. Salmon also answered the question of why he helped the police too (because they said things would be bad for them if they didn’t). There are so many secrets surrounding that family – will anyone benefit from exposing them now? Too little, too late Monique. Ariipaea Salmon is dead and his victims aren’t complaining – who will benefit by an expose?
Please could you people just leave him alone. He is dead and gone. So stop talking about him like that. It’s just pure disrespect. Leave him at least in peace now that he is dead. And Monique MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSSINESS. It’s past now and it’s all forgotten so give it a rest, you don’t need to know al the little details.