Nauru judiciary welcomes new resident magistrate and registrar
Nauru's new resident magistrate and registrar arrived on the
island in the last couple of days with the resident magistrate's
swearing-in ceremony taking place this afternoon (3 March).
Ropate Cabealawa read the oath of
office in the presence of the Acting Minister for Justice Charmaine
Scotty in the minister's office.
Mr Cabealawa who graduated with a
Bachelor of Law from the University of Waikato, New Zealand and
holds a Master of Law from the University of Pune, India will
initially take up the appointment of resident magistrate for six
months.
Immediately before taking up the
position in Nauru, Mr Cabealawa was the resident magistrate for the
Fiji Government since 2009 and worked as a research assistant with
the Fiji Law Reform Commission as well as being a government lawyer
with Fiji's Office of the Solicitor General.
Mr Cabealawa has held numerous
other high profile positions in the region including admission into
the High Courts of New Zealand and Fiji and the Supreme Court of
Tasmania.
Nauru has also engaged the services
of another international lawyer to fill the position of
registrar.
Former president of the Fiji Law
Society, Graham Leung will take up the appointment for six
months.
Prior to taking up the position Mr
Leung was the senior trainer at the Pacific Regional Rights
Resource Team/Secretariat of the Pacific Community (RRRT/SPC) based
in Fiji.
Mr Leung who has over 30 years of
international experience in his field of work also served as the
former principal and deputy director of the public prosecutions
office in Fiji and vice-president of LAW-ASIA;
He also served as the managing
director/owner of Fiji law firm Howards & Associates, as well
as former chairman of the Fiji Electoral Commission, chairman of
the Fiji New Zealand Education Trust and former director of the
International Commission of the Jurist (ICJ).
Mr Leung holds a Bachelor of Law
from the University of Adelaide, Australia and a Master of Law from
UCLA, USA.
Mr Cabealawa and Mr Leung are both
recruited from Fiji.