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The Government has expressed its reservations on the list of persons that have been selected to meet with the European Expert Mission (“Mission”) on the Rule of Law from today In a Press Conference yesterday, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Electoral Reform, Public Enterprises and Anti-Corruption, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that those listed to meet the Mission was determined by the Heads of a handful of diplomatic Missions. He said that some of these persons were litigants or representatives of litigants in matters against the State that were currently before the courts or friends and relatives of persons who had been charged with criminal offences. “We do not have any issues with the Mission meeting up with these persons but the Government believes that for an independent inquiry to be conducted the Mission needs to meet a cross section of people and people without any political interests.“ “We believe at the moment, the current list is not balanced.” He said for an example, the Mission should meet the former President of the Fiji Law Society, Mr Chen Young who held office when the then Government was removed in 2000. This meeting with Mr Young, he said would give the Mission the ability to assess the position of the FLS Council. “I raised it with the French Ambassador and he said that they had accidentally forgotten Mr Young’s name.” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said that the Government was concerned about such accidents taking place. The Attorney-General said he was informed and assured this afternoon by the European Union that the list could be expanded. “This list of persons has been put together by the Heads of a handful of diplomatic Missions in Fiji. In our experience it has been seen, at least in the past one year or so, that some of the Heads of the Missions have shown proclivity to a particular bias. They appear to be a lot more closer to various individuals in our society at the expense of impartiality. So we hope that this proclivity will not influence the range of persons that the Mission is going to meet,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said. None the less, he added that the Government welcomed the Mission. The schedule provided to the Attorney-General has the following persons listed who are to be met by the Mission. - Mr Sayed-Khaiyum; - the Solicitor-General, Mr Christopher Pryde; - the Acting Chief Justice, Mr Anthony Gates; - the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Josaia Naigulevu; - the Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Mr Rishi Ram; - the suspended Chief Justice, Mr Daniel Fatiaki; - the former A-G, Mr Qoroniasi Bale; - lawyer Jon Apted; - the Chief Magistrate, Ms Naomi Matanitobua; - President of the Fiji Law Society, Mr Isireli Fa; - the former Presidents of the Law Society, Mr Devanesh Sharma; - Mr Graham Leung; - Lawyer, Mr Richard Naidu; - Lawyer, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi; - Chair Transparency International, Mrs Susana Siwatibau; - Executive Officer, Ms Virisila Buadromo; - Ombudsman, Dr Shameem; - Imrana Jalal; - Ema Tagicakibau, PCRC; - Former Judge, Sir Moti Tikaram; - Former judge Michael Scott; - High Court Judge, Justice Nazhat Shameem and; - Commissioner of Police, Mr Esala Teleni. The Attorney-General revealed that the Mission would officially conclude their visit to Fiji on 15th July by meeting him again for the final time. He said the terms of reference for the Mission as stated by the Europeans would be “Commitments given to the European Union under the Cotonou Article 96 consultations concerning Rule of Law.” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum has also confirmed that the United Nations Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary would hopefully be in Fiji by the second week of August for a week. -Ends- No:1028 |
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