- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
- Bangladesh's Yunus says no elections before reforms
- England strike twice as Pakistan reach 397-6 at lunch in first Test
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Kenya's deputy president faces impeachment vote
- N. Korean soldiers 'highly likely' killed in Ukraine: Seoul
- 'Appeals Centre' to referee EU social media disputes
- US Supreme Court to hear 'ghost guns' regulation case
- 'Small' oil leaks detected in Samoa after NZ navy shipwreck
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- At Istanbul church, blessed spring offers hope to Christians and Muslims
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- Myanmar to send rep to regional summit for first time in three years
- Prabowo set to lead bolder Indonesia on world stage
- Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
- New Japan PM to hold talks on ASEAN sidelines
- Record number of climbers chase 14-peak dream in Tibet
- Former South Korea clinic for US 'comfort women' to be demolished
- Chiefs battle past Saints to stay unbeaten
- Deal on climate aid hangs in balance at UN COP29 summit
- Royals hit back against Yankees, Tigers maul Guardians
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Australia moves to expand Antarctic marine park
- Tragedy of Madrid street sweeper highlights how heatwaves kill
- Survivors wait for aid as Trump's lies help cloud Helene response
- Fleeing Israeli bombs, Lebanon's displaced met with suspicion
- Jila Mossaed, from refugee poet to Swedish Academy
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- Drugs, people smuggling at heart of Mexico's raging violence
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Musk says he is 'all in' on Trump in US election
- Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida
- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
RBGPF | 100% | 60.52 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.15% | 6.87 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ |
Former Fiji PM Bainimarama handed one-year prison sentence
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.
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.
Fiji's former police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho, a longtime ally of Bainimarama, was handed a two-year prison sentence in the same case.
The charges relate to a police investigation into staff at Fiji's University of the South Pacific in July 2020, when Bainimarama was prime minister and Qiliho the country's top officer.
- Legal woes -
Witnesses said that university staff tried to blow the whistle after stumbling across an allegedly suspicious web of bonus payments, promotions, and pay rises within the institution.
But Bainimarama and Qiliho used their influence to sideline a police investigation into those claims.
Both men have insisted on their innocence.
Bainimarama's 16-year grip on power was loosened at the end of 2022, when his longtime rival Sitiveni Rabuka formed a ruling coalition following a tumultuous general election.
The former leader's legal woes have mounted since he was succeeded by Rabuka.
In February 2023, parliament suspended him until 2026 after a speech in which he criticised his successor.
A year later, he was hit with two separate abuse-of-office charges.
One count related to the allegedly unlawful firing of two police officers in 2021.
The other was over his alleged waiving of a tender bid "without lawful justification" when he was finance minister in 2011.
V.Dantas--PC