included, to date: the sacking of judicial officers and of a number of senior government officials; the appointment of replacement judges in circumstances that are inconsistent with the basic tenets of judicial independence; the indefinite suspension without pay of the majority of opposition MPs in the 2013–2016 Parliament; and a number of moves to crack down on freedom of speech, and to hamstring the media. Mr Kun and his family found themselves at the centre of this maelstrom. Soon after the election, the Government sacked Mr Kun’s (then de facto) spouse, Dr Katy Le Roy, from her position as Parliamentary Counsel to Nauru – a position that she had discharged with distinction, earning her international repute.16 Then, in January 2014, while the Kun family were visiting Dr Le Roy’s country of nationality, Australia, for the birth of their third child, the Nauruan Government peremptorily cancelled her visa, barring her from re-entering the country. Dr Le Roy could not challenge this decision because, between January and September 2014 (following the sacking of the Island’s two judicial officers), Nauru did not have a functioning court system. Dr Le Roy – the spouse of a Nauruan Member of Parliament and the mother of three Nauruan citizens – was precluded from returning to her home on Nauru, even to collect her belongings.17 The Kun family needed a new home. Dr Le Roy applied for, and was offered, a permanent and fulltime position at the Parliamentary Counsel Office in New Zealand. In May 2014, the family moved to Wellington, with Mr Kun taking up the role of stay-at-home dad to the three young children. Around the same time, Mr Kun heard he had been suspended from the Nauruan Parliament (along with other opposition MPs) in retaliation for speaking to the international media about the breakdown in the rule of law in Nauru. Technically, he remained a Member of Parliament for the reminder of the 2013–2016 term. But he received no funding or resources and was unable to participate in parliamentary proceedings.18 This was how things stood for around a year, with the family settling into their new lives and putting down roots in their local community. Then, in June 2015, Mr Kun flew to Nauru for a fourday visit, where he attended a meeting with the Speaker of the House about the situation of the suspended MPs. Mr Kun also planned during his stay to join a protest that was to be held outside Parliament. But, in the event, he decided to stay away from the protest as he was concerned that it might provide an excuse for a Government crackdown. Sure enough, the protest was portrayed by the Government as a “riot”, and became the occasion for the arrest of three opposition MPs. The following day, Mr Kun boarded his scheduled flight to depart Nauru. Before the plane could leave, Mr Kun was removed from it by Government officials and advised that his passport had been cancelled. It would be more than year before Roland Kun would see his family again. In the intervening months, he was to remain an effective prisoner on Nauru – unable to leave in the absence of a valid travel document. During that time, he was never arrested or charged (nor even interviewed) in relation to any alleged criminal offending. The Nauruan Government asserted the cancellation of his passport was on national security grounds but never provided any explanation of how Mr Kun might be thought to endanger national security, nor how preventing him from leaving 16 She was sacked, along with the Police Commissioner, for providing the Government with free and frank advice in relation to the treatment of asylum seekers on Nauru. 17 Mr Kun and Dr Le Roy have since married, conferring on Dr Le Roy a constitutional entitlement to Nauruan citizenship: see Constitution of Nauru, art 74. But the Nauru Government has refused to process Dr Le Roy’s citizenship application. 18 This indefinite suspension was contrary to the Standing Orders of the Nauruan Parliament (SO 47), and inconsistent with the limited bases for disqualification from Parliament listed in the Constitution of Nauru (arts 31–32). 5 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3094731