After a closely-watched courtroom drama, Fiji‘s ex-prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice on Thursday.
Accused of leveraging his political influence to halt a sensitive police investigation during his leadership of the South Pacific nation, Frank Bainimarama, a former military commander turned elected leader, faced the allegations.
In the verdict, which was rendered today following an 11-week trial, Resident Magistrate Seini Puamau announced that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges filed under CID/HQ PEP 12/07/2019.
‘There was no evidence to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Bainimarama was aware of the investigations into CID/HQ PEP 12/07/2019 at the time he made [the] comment…There has been no evidence that he knew anything about CID/HQ PEP 12/07/2019 prior to this conversation with the commissioner in June 2020, I find that the state has not proven this element beyond reasonable doubt. I find Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama not guilty.
‘I am not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the second defendant had intentionally directed an act that was arbitrary in nature in the abuse of the authority of his office prejudicial to the rights of another. I find the second defendant Sitiveni Tukaituaraga Qiliho Not Guilty.’
After the verdict was delivered, he contended that the police had trumped up charges against him.
He thanked the magistrate overseeing the case for ‘breaking the confusion’, adding that ‘truth will prevail’.
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These charges were linked to a police investigation that focused on individuals at Fiji’s University of the South Pacific in July 2020, a period when Bainimarama held the position of prime minister.
A top-ranking university representative recounted in court how employees had initially tried to bring attention to what they perceived as a dubious network of bonus payments, promotions, and salary increments within the institution.
Subsequently, it was alleged that Bainimarama, upon learning of these claims reaching the police, was accused of using his influence to obstruct the investigation.
Rising to power through a coup that left no casualties in 2006, the 69-year-old former naval commodore governed the Pacific archipelago until he was ousted by popular vote in December the year before.