Kiribati parliament votes to remove Australian-born high court judge

Kiribati’s parliament has voted to remove Australian-born High Court Judge David Lambourne, who said on Friday the move was politically motivated and an attack on the independence of the Pacific Island nation’s judiciary.
The parliament voted to accept the recommendation of a special tribunal to remove Lambourne for misbehaviour.
An attempt to deport Lambourne, a judge who is married to Kiribati’s opposition party leader, sparked a judicial crisis two years ago in the remote atoll nation in a case closely watched by the United Nations and international legal groups.
In a statement on Friday, Lambourne said he was saddened that the parliament had voted to advise the president he should be removed from office as a judge.
“This has been a process motivated not by a desire to do right by the Constitution, but by politics, and the fabric of our democracy has been weakened as a result,” he said.