Former Fiji PM Bainimarama handed one-year prison sentence
World
By
AFP
| May 09, 2024
Former Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison for perverting the course of justice, with a judge finding he used his political clout to shut down a police investigation.
Bainimarama was sentenced at Fiji's High Court in the capital Suva, after being found guilty this year of quashing a police probe into alleged corruption at a Fijian university.
The former military commander seized power in a bloodless coup in 2006 and remains a popular figure in the South Pacific nation.
A crowd of supporters sang outside the court as the sentence was handed down before Bainimarama was handcuffed and led away into a waiting police truck.
Bainimarama's wife Maria sobbed throughout acting Chief Justice Salesi Temo's sentencing remarks.
READ MORE
TECNO POVA launches 'Own Your Move' platform for Kenya's independent-minded generation
Revealed: How much 2025 National Prayer Breakfast cost taxpayers
KenGen's ambitious 5,500 MW plan to deal with rising demand for electricity
High Court suspends IEBC's Sh1.5 million fine against Kipipiri MP
A government that won't learn will keep governing by crisis
KNEC clears examiners' pay after strikes, boycott threats
Where are they? 686,000 KCSE candidates missing in university placement
MPs scrutinise Bill to balance access to state Information
'Where Are They?' Mathare MP wants answer over missing residents
A lower court magistrate ruled in March that Bainimarama's ailing health -- he underwent urgent heart surgery in 2022 -- meant the 70-year-old should not be sent to prison.
But Temo upended this decision, saying it "completely ignored" the severity of Bainimarama's actions.
The judge lashed former naval commodore Bainimarama for trashing his oaths of office.
He did, however, reduce Bainimarama's sentence on the strength of character references provided by two former Fijian presidents.