SUVA (RNZI Online/Pacific Media Watch): The
former Fiji prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, will appear in the Suva High
Court on Monday on charges of inciting an army mutiny in 2000.Rabuka’s lawyers are expected to argue before Justice Gerard Winter that their client should not be put on trial.
If Justice Winter rules against the application, the trial proper is expected to begin next Wednesday with 31prosecution witnesses ready to give evidence.
Fiji TV reports that in a twist of irony the trial will take place in the same chamber where on May 14, 1987, Rabuka marched in and seized the Bavadra government at gunpoint.
It was Fiji ’s Parliament then but is now the chamber where High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court cases are heard.