Clash over Fiji treason case venue
SUVA, Fiji (AP) – Officials argued Wednesday over where to hold a hearing on treason charges against coup leader George Speight amid concerns it could trigger fresh violence in the South Pacific nation.
Fiji’s chief magistrate is insisting that a preliminary hearing against Speight be held in the capital, Suva, instead of at the prison where he is incarcerated.
But public prosecutor Josaia Naigulevu and the Fiji army say for security reasons that the inquiry should be held at Nukulau, a small island in Suva lagoon that was transformed into a jail to hold Speight and 14 of his supporters after they were arrested following last year’s nationalist coup.
Speight led a gang of armed men who stormed Parliament May 19 and toppled the government of then Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.
Speight said he wanted to rein in ethnic Indians, who form a large and powerful minority in Fiji. Chaudhry was Fiji’s first prime minister of ethnic Indian descent.
Since July, chief magistrate Salesi Temo and prosecution and defense lawyers have taken a navy boat to Nukulau every two weeks to formally extend the pretrial detention of Speight and his 14 associates.
But now Temo has written to Supreme Court registrar Musuka Tabete complaining that the Nukulau location was illegal and that as “things are returning to normal,” future hearings should be conducted in his Suva court.
Authorities fear a repeat of an orgy of violence triggered by Speight’s coup in which Fijian nationalists looted and torched Indian-owned businesses in downtown Suva.
The inquiry to open in June will last “several months” according to the prosecutor’s office and will hear from 244 prosecution witness.
If convicted of treason, Speight faces the death sentence. (Associated Press)
