The case, beginning before the Supreme Court, was a criminal trial over the sinking of the MV Princess Ashika, an inter-island ferry which sank in August 2009 with seventy-four fatalities.
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He began a career in national politics when he was elected People's Representative to Parliament for the constituency of Tongatapu 6 in the November 2010 general election, standing as a candidate for the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands.
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Pohiva, a Member of Parliament, was the editor, owner and publisher of the Keleʻa pro-democracy newspaper, in which an article in late 1998 alleged that the Auditor General, Pohiva Tuʻiʻonetoa, had lied and "altered the correct result of an independent examination".
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In 2001, he represented ʻAkilisi Pohiva, the main leader of Tonga's pro-democracy movement, when the latter was sued for defamation.