Justice for sedition-accused a challenge says Fiji lawyer

Transcript

The lawyer acting for dozens of people accused of sedition in Fiji says it's a challenge ensuring they get justice.

Aman Ravindra-Singh says he is the only lawyer acting for the accused but it's like a game of cat and mouse getting enough information from the authorities as he tries to represent the various groups who've been remanded in custody.

65 people have appeared in court so far amid allegations of indigenous rebel groups trying to form breakaway states in the country.

Mr Ravindra-Singh told Sally Round he's continuing to challenge the prosecution request for those accused to be remanded in custody but with no success.

AMAN RAVINDRA-SINGH:Continuing police investigations does not provide sufficient grounds that people be remanded. You can't simply take away the liberty of people merely on the contention that police are continuing with their investigations. The allegations stem from October November 2014. These men and women have been members of society for the last eight odd months, sorry, nine odd months and there has been nothing against them so all of a sudden as soon as you charge them they are now dangerous members of society. We do not have proper communication with our clients because the majority of them are now in remand and what we have is court dates. The initial Ra 16 are already in the High Court now. We've managed to move the Nadroga 16 to the High Court. They'll be making their first appearance next week, Wednesday. Apart from that the people in the middle who have been charged also with one count of sedition and one count of incitement but the allegation against them is that they were involved with military style training and other activities which we have yet to refute disclosures about. Now these guys are in the middle so what we are trying to do at the same time is move the cases all to the High Court but because the group in the middle has been charged in little groups of three, five, seven, 16, three, two, it will take some time and a lot of effort to get all of them in to the High Court and then most likely get all the cases consolidated to the point that it is one big case.The Ra 16 and the Nadroga 16 are charged with declaring a separate state, the allegation is of them trying to establish a separate state and the charge of sedition  and the second count of inciting communal antagonism is centred around two documents which the police and prosecution allege are seditious, one and secondly which was alleged to have incited people. What we have also seen from last week is a very dangerous precedent being set and that is people are being charged without any form of disclosures. Yesterday (Monday) we were fortunate enough to receive the charge sheet in court to know for the first time as to what charges our clients face. However with regard to disclosures we have not been given a single document so we have not seen the document on which the allegations are based, we have not seen witness statements against our clients , we have not seen interviews of our clients, nothing, whatsoever.

SALLY ROUND: And have you asked for those disclosures?

AR-S: Yes, yes we did. We raised objections to the whole process and one of my other points was that it was only right for my 16 clients to be given bail under strict conditions. We've even suggested a curfew while the prosecution get its act together. How silly is it that 16 people are in remand and they do not even have any piece of disclosure or piece of evidence which shows the case against them.

SR: So has the court ordered that those disclosures be put by the prosecution?

AR-S: Yes, yes and the court even commented on the point that it's usual practice that at least first phase disclosure be served to the accused person which simply comes down to the record of interview and the charge statement.

SR: So that will presumably happen in court next week?

AR-S: It will, it will, well we hope, fingers crossed. Again we've seen the DPP's office is dragging its feet. While the police and the DPP's office are very keen to charge people with serious offences and place them before court and ask that their liberty be taken away, they are not working diligently enough to give the right documents. Again due process is not being followed. People are being charged literally and they're not following the process. Now what I have informed the courts is this is very dangerous and I can see a dangerous precedent now being set. We have encountered this last week and we have encountered this this week before the courts,  so I'm very concerned and I'm very worried that a dangerous precedent has been set and despite airing our grievances and also putting forward the constitutional breaches we have seen that these arguments have not held and unfortunately our clients have all been remanded in custody.