"The timing of Mr Lal's article also raises a rather worrying issue. The Chief Justice's affairs are about to be aired before the Tribunal this coming Wednesday and to write in detail giving opinions on the issues borders on Contempt of Court."
The Fatiaki Tribunal (2007) and Pryde Tribunal (2024)
*When is commenting on a Judicial Tribunal in progress NOT Contempt?
*When the former Solicitor-General and now the suspended Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde decides, as in our case in 2008 and his case in 2024.
*Has Christopher Pryde committed Contempt of Court by commenting privately, and publicly, on his own case which is before three Fiji High Court judges for hearing from 19 August to 30 August 2024, and the Tribunal's report will be forwarded to the President on or before 23 September 2024?
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*In February 2008, I advised the late Russell Hunter to defy Pryde's demand for us to publish Aiyaz Khaiyum's response to my article on the 'Fatiaki Tribunal', but Hunter decided that he wanted the 'Scratching Monkeys' off his back and focus on publishing the Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's $2million in the Sydney bank.
*He had miscalculated the illegal Interim government's response. On 24 February, Hunter was abducted from his Suva home, tortured and deported to Australia. He was declared persona non grata, and Walter Mitty lawyer Aiyaz Khaiyum, changed the law so that Hunter could not challenge his deportation in the Fiji High Court. He died in Australia.
*What role Christopher Pydre played is not clear to us.
*Did Pryde and Khaiyum use Russell Hunter's decision to publish their response to my Opinion Piece in the Fiji Sun as a basis to subsequently deport Hunter out of Fiji?
Current A-G Graham Leung was representing Fatiaki at the 2007 Tribunal before Justices Robert Ellicot, Raymond Sears and Dr Tan Sri Lal Vohra
 Graham Leung |  Adish Narayan |  Nainendra Nand |  Anthony Gates |  Yash Ghai |
So far, we had remained detached from the controversy arising out of Prydegate. But Pride Before the Fall was long in the making, starting in 2007 when Christopher Pryde was illegally appointed Solicitor-General, replacing the ousted Nainendra Nand (an old friend of mine), who was arrested and beaten up at the army camp shortly after the 2006 Bainimarama coup. It was none other than Frank Bainimarama, now incarcerated in Nasinu Prison with his iPad and Heart Monitor, who had assaulted Nand, the deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s Solicitor-General.
The treasonous Coupists had removed both Nand and Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki from their respective positions, and both mounted legal challenges to their removal. To determine whether Fatiaki avoided paying taxes and was guilty of misbehaviour arising from his alleged role in drafting decrees following George Speight’s failed 2000 coup, the interim military cum civilian regime set up a judicial tribunal consisting of three overseas judges.
Ultimately, Fatiaki shook hands with the Interim Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum and walked away with $275,000 to become the Chief Justice of Nauru. His lawyers, Graham Leung, the current Attorney-General and a New Zealander QC Grant Illingworth, negotiated the ‘golden handshake’ deal with the devil. Nand was left to fight his case but passed away without getting any justice or compensation. Lawyer Adish Narayan, who Pryde now has engaged to represent him before the Tribunal, acted on behalf of Khaiyum and the Interim Bainimarama government in the $275,000 golden handshake deal.
Undoubtedly, both Narayan and Pryde have first-hand experience dealing with a Judicial Tribunal. Pryde can represent himself based on his leading role in the Fatiaki Tribunal. Documents reveal he was at the forefront in pursuing the deposed Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki. Despite the New Zealand government discouraging her citizens from taking up appointments in the post-2006 military government, Pryde was a ‘willing executioner’ against the illegal regime’s opponents.
We had the misfortune of becoming Pryde’s first victims. Strutting like a pumped-up legal peacock, he became the principal enforcer on behalf of the Taliban Mullah (as the late Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter described Aiyaz Khaiyum in private communications). We had coined names to describe those under our radar – Frank Bainimarama (Cassava Patch Runner), Christopher Pryde (Long White Kiwi Cloud), Small Madam (our deep throat inside FRCA) and Mahendra Chaudhry as Daaku – concerning his tax records, we were working for publication in the Fiji Sun in 2007-2008.
I had set out to establish if the two (Mahendra Chaudhry and Daniel Fatiaki) were tax dodgers since I had their thick tax files on me (provided by Small Madam inside FRCA). In 2007, without naming Chaudhry, I wrote the first of many articles in the Fiji Sun, starting with ‘Interim Cabinet Minister and the Taxman’. We didn’t name Chaudhry until a year later, in February 2008, as that Interim Minister. I was on friendly terms with those I was now writing about after the 2006 coup. My friendship with Fatiaki goes back nearly four decades to when he was a senior prosecutor in the DPP’s office. In 1980, I was chief court reporter for the old Fiji Sun, closed down by Sitiveni Rabuka following his treasonous and racist 1987 coups. As for Chaudhry, I interacted with him when he was a trade unionist and later stood up for him when he was cruelly deposed and held hostage by Speight and his thugs for 56 days in 2000.
That year, Aiyaz Khaiyum was a student at the University of Hong Kong, writing his thesis under the supervision of my old Oxford friend and colleague, Professor Yash Ghai of Kenya. Sadly, Ghai was too trusting of his mediocre student when he agreed to chair the Ghai Constitution Commission in 2012. If only he had listened to me, for in 1987, Yash Ghai and I were at the forefront of explaining and objecting to Rabuka’s 1987 coups. In 2012, I was completing a book on the trial, conviction and imprisonment of the Kenyan nationalist leader and future President Jomo Kenyatta in 1953, focusing on the corrupt colonial judge Ransley Thacker, who before being appointed to Kenya was Fiji’s colonial Attorney-General from 1934-38 (Chapter Three: The Shady Attorney-General in Sunny Land). The book's theme is Race, Rebellion, Justice and Empire: The Trial of Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta at Kapenguria, 1950-53. The book is a biography of the corrupt colonial judge Ransley Thacker, who presided over the Kenyatta trial.
Anthony Gates, who controversially replaced Fatiaki as Chief Justice, was another lifelong friend, senior prosecutor, and contemporary of Fatiaki in the DPP’s office. Therefore, it was no surprise that all sides, the key protagonists and antagonists, leaked highly confidential documents to me – documents that found their way into my Fiji Sun columns, including many ending up on the front pages. Of course, some were unhappy when they realized I had not taken the ‘bite’ but set out to establish the truth regarding their claims and counter-claims with various other highly trusted sources. In Chaudhry and Fatiaki’s cases, I had their whole tax files on me and access to contacts inside FRCA. Based on the tax files, I had written articles on both Chaudhry and Fatiaki, attracting the ire of Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum and Chriistpoher Pryde. They accused me of committing Contempt of Court by commenting in detail on the then impending 'Fatiaki Tribunal' before three overseas Judges..
The treasonous Coupists had removed both Nand and Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki from their respective positions, and both mounted legal challenges to their removal. To determine whether Fatiaki avoided paying taxes and was guilty of misbehaviour arising from his alleged role in drafting decrees following George Speight’s failed 2000 coup, the interim military cum civilian regime set up a judicial tribunal consisting of three overseas judges.
Ultimately, Fatiaki shook hands with the Interim Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum and walked away with $275,000 to become the Chief Justice of Nauru. His lawyers, Graham Leung, the current Attorney-General and a New Zealander QC Grant Illingworth, negotiated the ‘golden handshake’ deal with the devil. Nand was left to fight his case but passed away without getting any justice or compensation. Lawyer Adish Narayan, who Pryde now has engaged to represent him before the Tribunal, acted on behalf of Khaiyum and the Interim Bainimarama government in the $275,000 golden handshake deal.
Undoubtedly, both Narayan and Pryde have first-hand experience dealing with a Judicial Tribunal. Pryde can represent himself based on his leading role in the Fatiaki Tribunal. Documents reveal he was at the forefront in pursuing the deposed Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki. Despite the New Zealand government discouraging her citizens from taking up appointments in the post-2006 military government, Pryde was a ‘willing executioner’ against the illegal regime’s opponents.
We had the misfortune of becoming Pryde’s first victims. Strutting like a pumped-up legal peacock, he became the principal enforcer on behalf of the Taliban Mullah (as the late Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter described Aiyaz Khaiyum in private communications). We had coined names to describe those under our radar – Frank Bainimarama (Cassava Patch Runner), Christopher Pryde (Long White Kiwi Cloud), Small Madam (our deep throat inside FRCA) and Mahendra Chaudhry as Daaku – concerning his tax records, we were working for publication in the Fiji Sun in 2007-2008.
I had set out to establish if the two (Mahendra Chaudhry and Daniel Fatiaki) were tax dodgers since I had their thick tax files on me (provided by Small Madam inside FRCA). In 2007, without naming Chaudhry, I wrote the first of many articles in the Fiji Sun, starting with ‘Interim Cabinet Minister and the Taxman’. We didn’t name Chaudhry until a year later, in February 2008, as that Interim Minister. I was on friendly terms with those I was now writing about after the 2006 coup. My friendship with Fatiaki goes back nearly four decades to when he was a senior prosecutor in the DPP’s office. In 1980, I was chief court reporter for the old Fiji Sun, closed down by Sitiveni Rabuka following his treasonous and racist 1987 coups. As for Chaudhry, I interacted with him when he was a trade unionist and later stood up for him when he was cruelly deposed and held hostage by Speight and his thugs for 56 days in 2000.
That year, Aiyaz Khaiyum was a student at the University of Hong Kong, writing his thesis under the supervision of my old Oxford friend and colleague, Professor Yash Ghai of Kenya. Sadly, Ghai was too trusting of his mediocre student when he agreed to chair the Ghai Constitution Commission in 2012. If only he had listened to me, for in 1987, Yash Ghai and I were at the forefront of explaining and objecting to Rabuka’s 1987 coups. In 2012, I was completing a book on the trial, conviction and imprisonment of the Kenyan nationalist leader and future President Jomo Kenyatta in 1953, focusing on the corrupt colonial judge Ransley Thacker, who before being appointed to Kenya was Fiji’s colonial Attorney-General from 1934-38 (Chapter Three: The Shady Attorney-General in Sunny Land). The book's theme is Race, Rebellion, Justice and Empire: The Trial of Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta at Kapenguria, 1950-53. The book is a biography of the corrupt colonial judge Ransley Thacker, who presided over the Kenyatta trial.
Anthony Gates, who controversially replaced Fatiaki as Chief Justice, was another lifelong friend, senior prosecutor, and contemporary of Fatiaki in the DPP’s office. Therefore, it was no surprise that all sides, the key protagonists and antagonists, leaked highly confidential documents to me – documents that found their way into my Fiji Sun columns, including many ending up on the front pages. Of course, some were unhappy when they realized I had not taken the ‘bite’ but set out to establish the truth regarding their claims and counter-claims with various other highly trusted sources. In Chaudhry and Fatiaki’s cases, I had their whole tax files on me and access to contacts inside FRCA. Based on the tax files, I had written articles on both Chaudhry and Fatiaki, attracting the ire of Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum and Chriistpoher Pryde. They accused me of committing Contempt of Court by commenting in detail on the then impending 'Fatiaki Tribunal' before three overseas Judges..
What follows is a response by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Electoral Reform, Public Enterprises and Anti-Corruption on the Article by Victor Lal in the Sun dated 11.2.08 entitled “Where is the Justice?”
"where is the Justice?"
Or rather "where are the facts?
Your article of 11 February 2008 by Victor Lal is meaningless, being based on a complete misapprehension of the role of the Tribunal appointed by the President to investigate the affairs of Chief Justice Fatiaki. The Tribunal has not been appointed to "prosecute "the Judge for tax evasion; it has been appointed to investigate alleged wrongdoings on his part (including tax irregularities) with an end to determine whether such wrongdoings might warrant his removal from office.
Taxation malfeasance is but one part of the allegations and the issue to be resolved is whether such conduct is befitting of a person of the Chief Justice's position in society. Mr Lal's constant references to "the Report" , which he links to the Fatiaki investigation is both misleading and dishonest journalism. He claims his authorities to be (mysterious)"sources" and bases his "facts" on premises such as "it was hinted that.."
Mr Justice Fatiaki is not being "charged with willfully with intent to evade tax"(sic) (whatever Mr Lal means by that) and his position is therefore patently different to that of "an interim Cabinet Minister". To suggest otherwise and to use the Chief Justice as an example to push for proceedings against "the Minister" not only confuses the issues involved but lends credence to Mr Lal's own (perhaps unwise) claim that he is "politically motivated".
The timing of Mr Lal's article also raises a rather worrying issue. The Chief Justice's affairs are about to be aired before the Tribunal this coming Wednesday and to write in detail giving opinions on the issues borders on contempt of Court.
"where is the Justice?"
Or rather "where are the facts?
Your article of 11 February 2008 by Victor Lal is meaningless, being based on a complete misapprehension of the role of the Tribunal appointed by the President to investigate the affairs of Chief Justice Fatiaki. The Tribunal has not been appointed to "prosecute "the Judge for tax evasion; it has been appointed to investigate alleged wrongdoings on his part (including tax irregularities) with an end to determine whether such wrongdoings might warrant his removal from office.
Taxation malfeasance is but one part of the allegations and the issue to be resolved is whether such conduct is befitting of a person of the Chief Justice's position in society. Mr Lal's constant references to "the Report" , which he links to the Fatiaki investigation is both misleading and dishonest journalism. He claims his authorities to be (mysterious)"sources" and bases his "facts" on premises such as "it was hinted that.."
Mr Justice Fatiaki is not being "charged with willfully with intent to evade tax"(sic) (whatever Mr Lal means by that) and his position is therefore patently different to that of "an interim Cabinet Minister". To suggest otherwise and to use the Chief Justice as an example to push for proceedings against "the Minister" not only confuses the issues involved but lends credence to Mr Lal's own (perhaps unwise) claim that he is "politically motivated".
The timing of Mr Lal's article also raises a rather worrying issue. The Chief Justice's affairs are about to be aired before the Tribunal this coming Wednesday and to write in detail giving opinions on the issues borders on contempt of Court.
The following opinion column in the Fiji Sun, based on hard documents on our Founding Editor-in-Chief and then Opinion Columnist for Fiji Sun had irked them
FATIAKI TRIBUNAL should include other TAX EVADERS:
Minister, consultant, and board member, say FIRCA sources
By VICTOR LAL
Fijileaks: The three were Interim Finance Minister Chaudhry, FRCA Consultant Michael Scott and FRCA Board Member Arvind Datt.
It is only right, fair and proper that the Interim Cabinet Minister, the FIRCA consultant, and one of its board members who are all accused of tax evasion, were also directed to appear, alongside the suspended Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki, before the tribunal set up under the chairmanship of the Australian judge Justice Robert Ellicott, argue sources inside FIRCA.
They are basing their demand on the findings and recommendations of an internal audit that was carried out into Justice Fatiaki’s tax records on the orders of FIRCA CEO Jitoko Tikolevu and the Attorney General, Minister for Justice, Electoral Reform & Anti-Corruption, Aiyaz Khaiyum, with a view to prosecuting the Chief Justice for tax avoidance. The report dated 17 January 2008 concluded that Justice Fatiaki be criminally charged with 26 counts of wilfully, with intent to evade, paying taxes to FIRCA. The sources claim that since all the four cases are of a very similar nature, it will save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars if the other three were also included under the umbrella of one tribunal, and with similar charge sheets.
The main argument for the prosecution of the case against Justice Fatiaki, despite him having paid the tax during the amnesty period, granted by Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who is the line manager for FIRCA, is that Justice Fatiaki breached the Income Tax Act by wilfully not disclosing his true earnings.
The investigation report into Justice Fatiaki states as follows: “The offence was wilful as Mr Fatiaki prepared his own tax returns and was not misled into the omission by a tax agent or other person. Mr Fatiaki signed the tax returns personally including the declaration that the returns were “true and complete”. The returns will be entered into evidence.”
According to the sources, the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) found evidence in Justice Fatiaki’s office of income apart from his official salary. FICAC then raised FIRCA to get his tax returns (which showed only his salary). The Attorney-General Khaiyum, according to the sources, ordered FIRCA to prosecute Justice Fatiaki. (Fijileaks: We have not printed the whole article).
FATIAKI TRIBUNAL should include other TAX EVADERS:
Minister, consultant, and board member, say FIRCA sources
By VICTOR LAL
Fijileaks: The three were Interim Finance Minister Chaudhry, FRCA Consultant Michael Scott and FRCA Board Member Arvind Datt.
It is only right, fair and proper that the Interim Cabinet Minister, the FIRCA consultant, and one of its board members who are all accused of tax evasion, were also directed to appear, alongside the suspended Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki, before the tribunal set up under the chairmanship of the Australian judge Justice Robert Ellicott, argue sources inside FIRCA.
They are basing their demand on the findings and recommendations of an internal audit that was carried out into Justice Fatiaki’s tax records on the orders of FIRCA CEO Jitoko Tikolevu and the Attorney General, Minister for Justice, Electoral Reform & Anti-Corruption, Aiyaz Khaiyum, with a view to prosecuting the Chief Justice for tax avoidance. The report dated 17 January 2008 concluded that Justice Fatiaki be criminally charged with 26 counts of wilfully, with intent to evade, paying taxes to FIRCA. The sources claim that since all the four cases are of a very similar nature, it will save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars if the other three were also included under the umbrella of one tribunal, and with similar charge sheets.
The main argument for the prosecution of the case against Justice Fatiaki, despite him having paid the tax during the amnesty period, granted by Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who is the line manager for FIRCA, is that Justice Fatiaki breached the Income Tax Act by wilfully not disclosing his true earnings.
The investigation report into Justice Fatiaki states as follows: “The offence was wilful as Mr Fatiaki prepared his own tax returns and was not misled into the omission by a tax agent or other person. Mr Fatiaki signed the tax returns personally including the declaration that the returns were “true and complete”. The returns will be entered into evidence.”
According to the sources, the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) found evidence in Justice Fatiaki’s office of income apart from his official salary. FICAC then raised FIRCA to get his tax returns (which showed only his salary). The Attorney-General Khaiyum, according to the sources, ordered FIRCA to prosecute Justice Fatiaki. (Fijileaks: We have not printed the whole article).
NEXT, Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki, 'Pryde's appointment as S-G ILLEGAL'
*How the interim illegal regime had reduced suspended Fatiaki's salary.
*Now, Pryde is complaining his salary has been stopped, handicapping him from paying his legal representative before the Pryde Tribunal
*7 May 2008. The suspended CJ Daniel Fatiaki on his Salary Reduction
