According to the country’s director of public prosecutions, Fiji’s former long-serving Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, has received a one-year prison sentence for perverting the course of justice.An appeal by the director for public prosecutions led to the decision to overturn Bainimarama’s avoidance of jail time during sentencing last month, as ruled by Fiji’s high court on Thursday.
Following the hearing, supporters of his FijiFirst party gathered outside the high court in Suva and sang a Fijian hymn. Despite the ruling, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, a former attorney general and the party’s former general secretary, asserted that Bainimarama would continue to lead the FijiFirst party. He emphasized their plans for the upcoming 2026 elections during a press conference held by the party after the ruling.
Savenaca Narube
Leaders from other political parties, such as Savenaca Narube, the Unity Fiji party leader, expressed confidence in the legal process and believed that the court ruling wouldn’t cause political turmoil. Narube highlighted the importance of adherence to the law and the democratic principles that allow for legal recourse in case of disagreement.
The high court found Frank Bainimarama guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. He, a former military chief who came to power through a bloodless coup in 2006 and later won democratic elections in 2014 and 2018.This conviction stemmed from allegations that he instructed then police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho not to investigate corruption claims at the University of South Pacific during his tenure as prime minister.
The court sentenced Qiliho himself to two years in jail for abuse of office at the same hearing, according to Fiji’s office of the director of public prosecutions. The allegations of financial mismanagement at the university, which is collectively owned by 12 Pacific states, form the basis of the case.
Bainimarama led Fiji for 16 years until narrowly losing an election in December 2022 to a coalition of parties led by the current prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka.