We also call for the removal of the banning orders issued against us
REDDY COURT UPDATE: As widely anticipated, the Chief Magistrate finds Mahendra Reddy NOT GUILTY on one count of bribery and one count of undue influence.
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The court case was brought against Victor Lal and Fiji Sun staff in 2008 following Lal's disclosure that Aiyaz Khaiyum's fellow Interim Cabinet Minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhry, as Interim Finance Minister and line manager of FIRCA, was hiding $2million in Australia. We see no reason why the case should still be pending against Victor Lal when, in 2014, the Fiji Labour Party leader Chaudhry was found guilty by the Fiji High Court (and conviction affirmed by the Fiji Court of Appeal) of defrauding
the Reserve Bank of Fiji regarding the $2miilion
The Plaintiffs who rushed to take VICTOR LAL to court are no longer on FIRCA Board: Peceli Vocea passed away in Brussels in 2014; Arvind Datt, a Chaudhry lackey, moved to Australia; Jitoko Tikolevu is now Fiji High Commissioner to London, and Pio Tikoduadua is now president of NFP
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High Court Judge Justice Thushara Rajasinghe has dismissed the defence objection to the amended information to the charges in the Fiji Times Limited case.
The charges were earlier amended from inciting communal antagonism to sedition.
According to the amended information earlier filed and served to Fiji Times Limited, Publisher Hank Arts, Editor Fred Wesley, Nai Lalakai Editor Anare Ravula and contributor Josaia Waqabaca, it is alleged that Fiji Times, on the 27th of April last year printed the Nai Lalakai newspaper which contained an article which had content with a seditious intention to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between classes of the population.
Fred Wesley’s lawyer Faizal Haniff had objected to some of the particulars of his client’s charge saying that there are no specifics on the particulars of the charge for Wesley.
Haniff said a specific intention of Wesley is not mentioned in the charge adding that information on the charge sheet must show how Wesley was intending to aid and abet the alleged offence.
While responding to Haniff, Assistant DPP Lee Burney said that it was Wesley’s duty as an Editor to uphold the editorial guidelines and the allegation is clear.
Burney says someone pressed the print button on the printing press and it is clear that one of the employees was told to print the article.
Burney says the contents of the Nai Lalakai article had a tendency to create ill-will between sections of the community.
The trial will now start on the 11th of December this year upon the request of one of the defence counsels. The pre-trial conference will start this Friday. Source: Fijivillage News, 29 November 2017
The charges were earlier amended from inciting communal antagonism to sedition.
According to the amended information earlier filed and served to Fiji Times Limited, Publisher Hank Arts, Editor Fred Wesley, Nai Lalakai Editor Anare Ravula and contributor Josaia Waqabaca, it is alleged that Fiji Times, on the 27th of April last year printed the Nai Lalakai newspaper which contained an article which had content with a seditious intention to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between classes of the population.
Fred Wesley’s lawyer Faizal Haniff had objected to some of the particulars of his client’s charge saying that there are no specifics on the particulars of the charge for Wesley.
Haniff said a specific intention of Wesley is not mentioned in the charge adding that information on the charge sheet must show how Wesley was intending to aid and abet the alleged offence.
While responding to Haniff, Assistant DPP Lee Burney said that it was Wesley’s duty as an Editor to uphold the editorial guidelines and the allegation is clear.
Burney says someone pressed the print button on the printing press and it is clear that one of the employees was told to print the article.
Burney says the contents of the Nai Lalakai article had a tendency to create ill-will between sections of the community.
The trial will now start on the 11th of December this year upon the request of one of the defence counsels. The pre-trial conference will start this Friday. Source: Fijivillage News, 29 November 2017
Fijileaks: Is the DPP saying that every article published by the Nai Lalakai in vernacular Fijian should have been read, vetted, and approved by Fred Wesley and Hank Arts, who does not even speak the Fijian language? Its like claiming that Frank Bainimarama (as party leader) and Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum (as general secretary of the FFP) should have vetted their Cabinet Minister Mahendra Reddy before he opened his mouth at the Ra High School which had landed Reddy before the Suva Magistrates Court. VOTERS will be the final judge, come the general election in 2018
