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Fiji's judiciary under the gun

Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama copy The Pacific Centre for Public Integrity is calling for an international fact finding mission to Fiji to investigate the nation’s judiciary.
The PCPI is critical of the decision last week by the High Court to throw out a challenge to the legality of the military coup.
Its spokesperson Angie Heffernan says in the view of the PCPI, the judges were not impartial or independent because they had been appointed by the military regime.
She says the court decision lacks credibility and any appeal would be a waste unless it was heard by a judge not appointed by the interim government.

The High Court of Fiji dismissed deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s challenge on the legality of the interim government in its ruling last Friday, declaring that the President’s action following the military take-over in 2006 was legal.
As reported by Fiji Times Online, the Suva High Court, in its landmark ruling last week “dismissed ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s challenge” and cemented the “President’s powers in times of emergency.”
Acting Chief Justice Anthony Gates, while delivering the ruling, said the decision by His Excellence, the President Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu to appoint an interim government after the military takeover was valid.
Qarase’s case “had sought several declarations from the High Court relating to the military coup of Dec. 5, 2006 and other key actions taken by the interim regime after that date” and the “President’s powers post-coup in 2006,” reported Fiji Times.
According to the report, Qarase said he was “surprised and disappointed” about the decision.
“The decision will encourage future coups, because all that the coup perpetrators need to do is to get the President to validate all illegal actions carried out during and after the coup,” he said, adding that “justice no longer appears to be the business of Fiji’s judicial system. The judgement today has made a complete mockery of that system.”
Former Opposition leader Mick Beddoes, also ousted after the 2006 coup, said that the judgment “legitimized treason as a means of changing governments in Fiji which only served to encourage more coups in Fiji.”
He said he was grateful that the decision exposed the judiciary as no longer independent.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase copy Mahendra Chaudhary, leader of the Fiji Labour Party and former Finance Minister of the interim regime, said her party welcomed the ruling, adding it created the need to re-examine and clearly define the reserve powers of the President.
Former Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, who staged Fiji’s first coup in 1987, said the ruling was “dangerous” in that it provided a legal justification for the December 2006 military takeover. Regional neighbours, Australia and New Zealand agreed, saying democracy should come first.