Fiji’s 2000 coup leader George Speight and Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) leader Shane Stevens have been granted presidential pardons and were officially released from custody today.
Both men had been serving life sentences—Speight for treason and Stevens for mutiny. Their pardons were part of a decision made by Fiji’s Mercy Commission during its meeting on 18th September 2024.
The commission, which reviews petitions for clemency, also pardoned five others: Sekina Vosavakatini, Nioni Tagici, James Sanjesh Goundar, Adi Livini Radininausori, and John Miller.
In the 1999 election, Mahendra Pal Chaudhary’s Fiji Labour Party-led People’s Coalition had a landslide win with 58 of the 71 seats in the House of Representatives. Chaudhry was duly appointed Prime Minister on 19 May 1999 and appointed indigenous Fijians to two-thirds of all ministerial positions.
Speight, a former businessman, led the 2000 coup that saw then-Prime Minister Chaudhry, Fiji’s first Indo-Fijian leader, and his government held hostage for 56 days.
The coup was driven by Speight and Indigenous nationalists allegedly aiming to restore political power to Indigenous Fijians, sparking ethnic tension between iTaukei Fijians and Indo-Fijians and leading to 21 months of political instability and violence.
Speight was arrested in July 2000 and sentenced to death for treason. However, in 2002, the Mercy Commission commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
While awaiting trial, Speight was elected to Fiji’s parliament but was expelled as he remained in custody.
The Mercy Commission, chaired by the attorney-general and comprising four other members appointed by the president, has the power to recommend pardons.
According to the 2013 Fijian Constitution, the Commission may recommend that the President of Fiji:
- exercise the power of mercy by granting a free or conditional pardon to a person convicted of an offence; remitting all or a part of a punishment
- dismiss a petition that it reasonably considers to be frivolous, vexatious or entirely without merit, but otherwise must consider a report on the case prepared by the Judge who presided at the trial; or the Chief Justice, if a report cannot be obtained from the presiding Judge;
- must consider any other information derived from the record of the case or elsewhere that is available to the Commission; and
- may consider the views of the victims of the offence.
The Constitution states that the President must act in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission.
Last year, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the coup, Chaudhry told Fijivillage this coup will never be forgotten as a lot of what is happening today in Fiji is the price we have to pay for the two coups.
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