Former Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been found guilty of corruption charges for a second time, quashing his supporters’ hopes that he might have been about to stage a political comeback.
Justice Thushara Rajasinghe ruled Bainimarama had made an unwarranted demand with menace when he directed then-Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu to terminate two officers, a sergeant and a constable.
Meanwhile, the officer who succeeded Tudravu as commissioner, Sitiveni Qiliho, was acquitted of two counts of abuse of office after the judge.
It was alleged he had reviewed and overturned Tudravu’s decision not to fire the two officers, but the judge found there was insufficient evidence to prove he was guilty of abuse of office by doing so.
The prosecution has yet to determine whether it will appeal Qiliho’s verdict.
The former military commander seized power in a coup in 2006, the country’s fourth in 20 years, deposing the late Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. In 2014, the country held its first election in 8 years, which Bainimarama’s now-deregistered FijiFirst Party won in a landslide.
But his government was accused of bullying, intimidation of opponents, human rights abuses, and suppression of the media, and by the 2018 election it had fallen out of favour and barely managed to secure a little over 50 percent of the total votes needed to form a majority government.
In 2022, facing a strong challenge from former prime minister and coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka, his party won the most seats in Parliament, but not enough to hold a majority, leaving it to smaller parties to choose who would lead a coalition. They chose Rabuka.
Bainimarama resigned from parliament in March 2023 after it imposed a three-year suspension on him for sedition.
This was over a speech he made criticising the president, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, for supporting the new government and making an appeal to the military, which Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said sought to “incite an uprising.”
This is Bainimarama’s second conviction on corruption charges.
Last year he was jailed for 12 months for perverting the course of justice by obstructing a police investigation into corruption involving finances at the University of the South Pacific in 2021. Qiliho was found guilty of a similar offence and jailed for 2 years.
However, Bainimarama was released from prison last November under provisions that allow for the early release of inmates based on specific criteria, including both ensuring the security of the community and the facilitation of an inmate’s reintegration. Qiliho was released from jail on Sept. 8 this year.
There had been talk of Bainimarama restarting his political career with a view to challenging Rabuka, but the latest conviction will almost certainly put an end to that.
In April, one of his closest associates, former Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, claimed the people wanted Bainimarama back, and that he was likely to respond by contesting the election next year.
