*On 14 May 1987, Rabuka committed treason against Queen Elizabeth 11 of England and Fiji but escaped the death penalty. On 19 May he was resigned to face the gallows, as he boasted: |
*GEORGE SPEIGHT had been sentenced to death but the Laisenia Qarase government, in conspiracy with Speight, got the President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to sign a decree commuting the sentence to life. | "And may the Lord have mercy on you." |