As day 5 of the Laisenia Qarase trial is set to start this morning, FICAC Senior Counsel, Michael Blanchflower is expected to continue questioning FICAC witness, Sitiveni Weleilakeba.
Qarase's counsel, Tupou Draunidalo has already finished cross-examining Weleilakeba.
During the cross examination, Blanchflower objected to questions raised by Draunidalo that it was not unfair to indigenous Fijians how the FHL shares were allotted in the early 1990's.
Draunidalo questioned Weleilakeba whether he thought it was unfair to other indigenous Fijians when his company Stiks Investments applied for 150,000 Class A shares in FHL.
Weleilakeba said that he took the opportunity to invest when it was offered to him.
He went on to say that at the time, FHL was well known in the indigenous Fijian community and the opportunities at FHL were well known to the community.
Upon questioning, Weleilakeba also said that the option to take a loan from the Fiji Development Bank to purchase shares were also well known to the indigenous Fijians.
However Blanchflower objected to Draunidalo's question to Weleilakeba that this would mean that the allotment of shares were not unfair to the community.
Blanchflower said that Weleilakeba cannot speak about fairness or unfairness to the indigenous Fijian community as people would think differently on this issue.
Meanwhile Sitiveni Weleilakeba confirmed in the trial yesterday that during his time as company secretary, no director showed any dissent during the board resolutions.
Upon questioning by Blanchflower, Weleilakeba confirmed this and also said that Laisenia Qarase was present during these board meetings.
Weleilakeba also confirmed that the share application letters for companies such as Q-Ten Investments and Mavana Investments which were forwarded to the board did not have any details on the shareholdings of families in those companies.
Qarase is charged with 6 counts of abuse of office and three counts of discharge of duty with respect to property in which he has a private interest.
It is alleged that Qarase applied, and then facilitated and allowed the purchase of Class A FHL shares for certain companies when he was Director of FHL, Financial Advisor of the Fijian Affairs Board and Advisor to the Great Council of Chiefs.
Story by: Vijay Narayan and Filipe Naikaso