Former Prime Minister and FijiFirst Party Leader, Frank Voreqe Bainimarama will not be eligible to contest the general elections until 2032 as the High Court has found guilty of perverting the course of justice, ordering that he face sentencing later this month for interfering in a police investigation.
Mr Bainimarama’s conviction of the charge of one count of attempt to pervert the course of justice is based on the Fiji Constitution.
According to the charges, Mr Bainimarama sometime in July 2020 as the Prime Minister directed the Police Commissioner, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, to stop the investigation into a police complaint, in the abuse of the authority of his office, which was an arbitrary act prejudicial to the rights of the University of the South Pacific (USP) which is the complainant.
For Mr Qiliho’s charges, the charges say that Mr Qiliho on 15 of July 2020 as the Police Commissioner directed the Director of the Criminal Investigations Department, Serupepeli Neiko and Inspector Reshmi Dass to stop investigations into the police complaint by the USP, in the abuse of the authority of his office, which was an arbitrary act of prejudicial to the rights to USP.
Mr Qiliho was convicted of one count of abuse of office which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. In Mr Bainimarama’s case, his charge, under the Crimes Act, carries a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment.
The “USP saga” has also caused a major rift between Fiji and the other 12 USP-member countries and may have contributed to the narrow loss of Mr Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party (FFP) in the December 2022 election.
This electoral loss in 2022 also saw Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Mr Bainimarama’s deputy, disqualified from holding his seat in parliament.
On 12 October 2023, Mr Bainimarama and Mr Qiliho were found not guilty and acquitted by Magistrate Puamau. However, Acting Chief Justice Salesi Temo overturned Magistrate Seini Puamau’s judgement and convicted Bainimarama and also suspended Police Commissioner, Mr Qiliho.
Further, in his judgement, Justice Temo ordered that this matter be brought before Magistrate Puamau in the Suva Magistrates Court for her to abide by the decision of the High Court and pronounce both the respondents, Mr Bainimarama and Mr Qiliho guilty as charged and convict them accordingly.
Justice Temo ordered Mr Bainimarama and Mr Qiliho and the State to file their mitigation and sentencing submissions by 20 March 2024 after which the Magistrate is ordered to conduct a sentence hearing on 21 March 2024 followed by the sentencing of the two on 28 March 2024.
Section 56 (2) (g) of the 2013 Fijian Constitution states that a person maybe a candidate for election to parliament only if the person has not at any time during the 8 years immediately before being nominated, been convicted of any offence under any law for which the maximum penalty is a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more.
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