UPDATE, WELCOME HOME. After March, Ratu Ului Mara was back in Fiji in April, for a week without let or hindrance from the Police
 Pryde  |  Ratu Ului Mara  Tagicakibau |
*On 3 October 2014, the former Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde had entered a nolle prosequi in the Suva Magistrates Court against Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara who was charged with swearing about dictator and coupist Frank Bainimarama and his group in another country (South Korea). |  |
*We would like to point out that Ratu Ului was charged with making seditious comments (to Tagicakibau) whereas Brigadier-General PITA DRITI was charged with Inciting Mutiny and was jailed for Four Years.
*As our documents (below) reveal, in January 2023 the Fiji Immigration Department informed Ratu Ului's lawyers (Gordon & Co) that Ratu Ului was FREE to enter Fiji because Ratu Ului was NOT 'a person of interest' to the Immigration Department nor was he on their 'Controversial List'.
Fijileaks to the Fiji Sun: Ratu Ului was never charged with MUTINY.
He was charged with making seditious comments against Bainimarama and his cohorts
 |  Siromi Turaga |
One law for the chiefs and another for everyone else
The Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, has some serious questions to answer with the disclosure that Ratu Tevita Mara - otherwise known as Roko Ului - is to travel to Fiji from his decade plus exile in Tonga to attend the forthcoming meeting on Bau of the Great Council of Chiefs.
The son of the former Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, is a fugitive from Fijian justice, with an order against him to be arrested on sight for having fled the country after he was charged in 2011 with mutiny and trying to overthrow the government.
Ratu Tevita's fellow senior officer in the RFMF, Pita Driti, was tried and convicted on the same charge and spent four years in prison until he was released in 2017. But Roko Ului fled Fiji in dramatic circumstances when his relative, the late King George Tupou V of Tonga, sent a naval patrol boat to infiltrate Fijian waters and rescue Mara off Kadavu. He has been in exile at the Tongan royal court ever since and has never had to account for his conduct even though his fellow officer was convicted and jailed.
Grubsheet received reports at Christmas that Ratu Tevita was back in Tubou Village, Lakeba at the chiefly seat of the Tui Nayau - the paramount chief of the Lau Group. The title has been vacant since the death of his father, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 2004. And as the accompanying Fiji Sun story details, there are moves underway in the vanua to install Ratu Tevita as his successor.
It was presumably as the heir presumptive to the title that Ratu Tevita was again back in Fiji in March to attend the installation of the new Vunivalu of Bau, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau. But why was he permitted to do so when he is a wanted man who absconded just before he was due to face trial in 2011?
Grubsheet understands that sometime in the past few years, a bench warrant for Ratu Tevita's arrest as soon as he appeared on Fijian soil was cancelled. On whose authority this happened isn't clear. But we also understand that an arrest order has since been reimposed and law enforcement authorities must detain Ratu Tevita on arrival in Fiji or prevent him from leaving if he manages to enter the country undetected.
So why is Ratu Tevita planning to attend the forthcoming GCC meeting on Bau? Who has given the order that the current arrest order be suspended or overturned to enable him to do so? It can only have happened with the authority of the Attorney General and as the chief law officer of the state, Siromi Turaga has some serious explaining to do.
There are several important principles here. One is the evasion of justice and Ratu Tevita's illegal flight to Tonga assisted by his relative, the late King, which involved a breach of Fiji's territorial sovereignty that would have provoked a major diplomatic incident anywhere else in the world. Another is that Ratu Tevita's alleged co-conspirator, the commoner Pita Driti, faced the music and spent four years in jail having been convicted on precisely the same charge while Ratu Tevita escaped justice and was able to live comfortably in Nuku'alofa in the reported employ of the Tongan royal court.
But the most important principle is the equal application of the law - the inviolable principle that someone charged with a serious offence should stand trial like anyone else. And in the absence of a trial and verdict, they are still wanted individuals and should clearly be subject to arrest.
Is a special case being made by the current government because of Ratu Tevita's exalted status as a chief - the scion of the nation's founding prime minister and heir presumptive to the traditional title of Tui Nayau? It certainly looks that way when Ratu Tevita is able to come and go from Fiji unmolested in spite of an arrest order having been issued against him.
The integrity of the criminal justice system demands that an exception simply cannot be made for Ratu Tevita just because he is a chief and the Great Council of Chiefs is being reconvened. It makes a mockery of the entire system and constitutes a naked assault on the most important principle that underpins our democracy - that everyone is equal before the law irrespective of their status.
Siromi Turaga needs to explain to the Fijian people why this principle is being ignored in the case of Ratu Tevita. The Attorney General has an obligation to ensure that whatever the current circumstances, Ratu Tevita must be arrested as soon as he arrives in Fiji and put before the courts in the same way that Pita Driti was. And if the AG won't meet that obligation, he is unfit to be the chief law officer of the state and must be removed. The need to uphold the rule of law demands it.
The son of the former Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, is a fugitive from Fijian justice, with an order against him to be arrested on sight for having fled the country after he was charged in 2011 with mutiny and trying to overthrow the government.
Ratu Tevita's fellow senior officer in the RFMF, Pita Driti, was tried and convicted on the same charge and spent four years in prison until he was released in 2017. But Roko Ului fled Fiji in dramatic circumstances when his relative, the late King George Tupou V of Tonga, sent a naval patrol boat to infiltrate Fijian waters and rescue Mara off Kadavu. He has been in exile at the Tongan royal court ever since and has never had to account for his conduct even though his fellow officer was convicted and jailed.
Grubsheet received reports at Christmas that Ratu Tevita was back in Tubou Village, Lakeba at the chiefly seat of the Tui Nayau - the paramount chief of the Lau Group. The title has been vacant since the death of his father, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 2004. And as the accompanying Fiji Sun story details, there are moves underway in the vanua to install Ratu Tevita as his successor.
It was presumably as the heir presumptive to the title that Ratu Tevita was again back in Fiji in March to attend the installation of the new Vunivalu of Bau, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau. But why was he permitted to do so when he is a wanted man who absconded just before he was due to face trial in 2011?
Grubsheet understands that sometime in the past few years, a bench warrant for Ratu Tevita's arrest as soon as he appeared on Fijian soil was cancelled. On whose authority this happened isn't clear. But we also understand that an arrest order has since been reimposed and law enforcement authorities must detain Ratu Tevita on arrival in Fiji or prevent him from leaving if he manages to enter the country undetected.
So why is Ratu Tevita planning to attend the forthcoming GCC meeting on Bau? Who has given the order that the current arrest order be suspended or overturned to enable him to do so? It can only have happened with the authority of the Attorney General and as the chief law officer of the state, Siromi Turaga has some serious explaining to do.
There are several important principles here. One is the evasion of justice and Ratu Tevita's illegal flight to Tonga assisted by his relative, the late King, which involved a breach of Fiji's territorial sovereignty that would have provoked a major diplomatic incident anywhere else in the world. Another is that Ratu Tevita's alleged co-conspirator, the commoner Pita Driti, faced the music and spent four years in jail having been convicted on precisely the same charge while Ratu Tevita escaped justice and was able to live comfortably in Nuku'alofa in the reported employ of the Tongan royal court.
But the most important principle is the equal application of the law - the inviolable principle that someone charged with a serious offence should stand trial like anyone else. And in the absence of a trial and verdict, they are still wanted individuals and should clearly be subject to arrest.
Is a special case being made by the current government because of Ratu Tevita's exalted status as a chief - the scion of the nation's founding prime minister and heir presumptive to the traditional title of Tui Nayau? It certainly looks that way when Ratu Tevita is able to come and go from Fiji unmolested in spite of an arrest order having been issued against him.
The integrity of the criminal justice system demands that an exception simply cannot be made for Ratu Tevita just because he is a chief and the Great Council of Chiefs is being reconvened. It makes a mockery of the entire system and constitutes a naked assault on the most important principle that underpins our democracy - that everyone is equal before the law irrespective of their status.
Siromi Turaga needs to explain to the Fijian people why this principle is being ignored in the case of Ratu Tevita. The Attorney General has an obligation to ensure that whatever the current circumstances, Ratu Tevita must be arrested as soon as he arrives in Fiji and put before the courts in the same way that Pita Driti was. And if the AG won't meet that obligation, he is unfit to be the chief law officer of the state and must be removed. The need to uphold the rule of law demands it.
  |  |
