Prosecution and police hinder justice in Fiji

Chief Magistrate Salesi Temo has demanded the state produce its witnesses in a preliminary inquiry beginning tomorrow in the magistrates court in the capital Suva to determine whether the evidence is sufficient for a High Court trial.

But the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is understood to have taken testimony from less than 50 of the planned 114 witnesses. One of the chief witnesses, deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, has not received a summons.

In an article in the Wellington Dominion newspaper today Teaiwa said the biggest challenge facing Fiji was mediating between the need for both justice and reconciliation.

“Practically, what needs to be overcome is either the gross procedural incompetence or the severe lack of creative problem-solving skills in the (DPP) and the police, for at this point it is they who are providing the biggest obstructions to the cause of justice in Fiji,” she wrote.

Neither was capable of processing acceptable and sufficient evidence, she said, citing as an example a failure to bring charges in 1998 in a 200 million Fiji dollars (120 million US) scandal involving loans from the state owned National Bank of Fiji.

“In the past five years, there have been several cases of serious fraud that the DPP’s office and the police have been unable to successfully prosecute,” she wrote.

Speight would most likely escape the main charge of treason, but might face other minor allegations, she added.

Diplomatic sources have previously told AFP the treason charges against Speight were in danger of collapsing over a failure to gather adequate evidence.

On May 19, Speight and others stormed parliament and held Chaudhry and his government hostage for 56 days in the name of ethnic Fijians. Chaudhry’s was the country’s first ethnic Indian Prime Minister.

Ten days later, the army ripped up the multi-racial constitution and declared martial law. Later it appointed an interim government led by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

Speight freed his hostages after signing an agreement with the military giving him immunity from treason. But he was later arrested when the state claimed he had violated the terms of the deal by not returning all the arms.

Speight and nine others have been detained on Nukulau Island since their arrest on July 26. After a military mutiny on November 2, all routine court appearances have taken place on the island.

Tomorrow will mark their first appearance on the mainland since then.