APIA, Samoa — Two former Cabinet ministers have been sentenced to die for plotting the murder of another member of Samoa's government, the first assassination in the tiny Pacific island nation's history.
Judge Andrew Wilson, upholding a 4-1 decision by a jurylike panel, said Thursday he could find no reason to overrule Wednesday's verdict and sentenced the men to hang.
Former women's affairs minister Leafa Vitale, 57, and former communications minister Toi Aukuso, 68, were convicted of planning the murder of Luagalau Levaula Kamu, 44, who was shot in the back while he spoke on his mobile telephone at a political gathering on July 16.
If the sentence is carried out, the two would be the first people executed in Samoa since it gained independence in 1961.
Since independence, the country's head of state has commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment.
Throughout the trial, Vitale denied ordering the murder and described Kamu as a "very good friend."
But Aukuso testified that Vitale asked him to shoot Kamu and Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi. Aukuso said he refused after Vitale failed to pay him as promised.
A popular figure, Kamu was part of a new wave of young politicians seeking to clean up politics. His killing was seen as an attempt to stifle information about corruption believed to implicate former ministers and legislators.
Prosecutors also said the former ministers had Kamu killed because they were jealous of his appointment as public works minister, a post in which the holder is in a position to receive bribes from local companies competing for government contracts.
Samoa is a former German and New Zealand territory, once known as Western Samoa, with a population of about 164,000 spread over an island chain. The U.S. territory of American Samoa comprises several islands in the same group.
Kamu's killing shocked the normally placid region. The three-month trial focused attention on government corruption in Samoa, which is about 2,000 miles east of Australia.
Vitale's son, Alatise, 34, was earlier convicted of shooting Kamu. His death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by the judge.
Alatise Vitale testified that his father and friend ordered him to carry out the killing.
The courtroom was filled with spectators and members of the defendants' and victim's families when the sentences were handed down.
Neither responded in court, but as the pair was led out by police, Aukuso looked back and waved goodbye to relatives.
From the back of a police van which took the men to Tafaigata prison in Apia, Aukuso yelled, "Not guilty, not guilty. It's foul play."