Prosecuting in paradise - race, politics and the rule of law in Fiji

Crime, Law & Social Change (2005) 44: 79109

DOI: 10.1007/s10611-006-9010-z C Springer 2006Prosecuting in paradise race, politics and the rule of law in FijiMARK TEDESCHI

New South Wales Crown Prosecutors

(e-mail: [email protected])Abstract. This article looks at the violent coup in Fiji in 2000 led by George Speight in which the

multiracial Government of Mahendra Chaudhary was overthrown. The article gives an insiders

account of a subsequent criminal trial of some senior political figures who had supported

Speight, including the Vice-President of Fiji. They were charged with taking treasonous oaths

of office to serve in a rebel Government under Speight at a time when the legitimate Head of

State, President Ratu Sir Kamasisi Mara, was struggling to prevent the nation from descending

into total chaos and anarchy. The article considers how the trial had important ramifications

for the rule of law in this developing south Pacific nation.OutlineThe period between 1987 and 2000 witnessed three coups in the Republic of

the Fiji Islands. Those coups arose predominantly out of racial tensions in

Fiji. Whilst there were no prosecutions that emerged from the two coups in

1987, there have been some highly significant criminal trials that have arisen

from the coup in 2000. Those trials, and the political consequences that have

flowed from them, provide an excellent example of the interaction of law,

politics and social change in an emerging democracy only three decades old.

This article examines one of the most significant trials that emanated from the

coup in 2000, in which six persons, including the Vice President of Fiji, were

charged with taking treasonous oaths of office under the coup leader, George

Speight. The author was the Prosecutor in that trial. The article seeks to place

the trial within the political and demographic context of the time, analyses

the legal issues that arose during the trial, and considers the consequences for

the rule of law that have emerged from the three coups and indeed from this

particular trial.Professor Mark Tedeschi MA LLB QC is the Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales

and the President of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors. He is a visiting Professor

of law at the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention at Wollongong University. He has been

a barrister for 29...