Nauru 19

In the subsequent retrial, the fifteen remaining members of the group were sentenced to a maximum of 11 months in prison in December 2019.

[2] MPs suspended included Mathew Batsiua, former President Sprent Dabwido, Squire Jeremiah, and Roland Kun.

[4] The government passed the Civil Procedures Amendment 2018 in June, which limited, among other things, the maximum legal fees payable per case to US$2,231.

[9] In early July, the government announced its intention to appeal the ruling against the Civil Procedures Amendment Act.

Justice Minister David Adeang found the amount of money ordered by the court to paid to the Australian lawyers to be excessive.

[15] Justice Muecke had explained that during the trial, there was a blacklist implemented by the government against members of the Nauru 19, to impede them in various ways, notably in employment and travel.

[22] In June 2019, Judge Daniel Fatiaki on the appeals court overturned both the permanent stay and the voiding of the 2018 Criminal Procedure Amendment Act.

[7][24] Also in June, Nauru passed laws which effectively blocked access to international lawyers in Nauruan courts.

[25] In September, two members of the Nauru 19, Squire Jeremiah and his cousin Rutherford, had fled to Australia, seeking political asylum there.

After refusing the Nauru 19 additional legal representation, there was a failed application to have Judge Fatiaki dismissed from the case for bias.

[29] In a verdict delivered on 11 December 2019, the remaining fifteen members of the Nauru 19 were found guilty.

[29] On 19 December, the Nauru 19 were ultimately sentenced by Judge Fatiaki to jail, with terms between three and eleven months.

Each of them had their sentences reduced due to the delays in the trial, personal circumstances, and the extrajudicial punishment faced in the form of the blacklist.