The counsel for Charlie Charters has been ordered by High Court Judge, Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu, to serve a motion seeking the return of the 7 electronic devices seized by Police, on the Commissioner of Police by close of business today.
The motion was filed after Police re-seized the devices last Friday under a fresh search warrant, despite an earlier Magistrates Court order for the devices to be returned to Charters’ solicitor, Seforan Fatiaki, by 1pm.
Charters’ counsel, Juleen Fatiaki, told the High Court that Seforan Fatiaki was called to Police CID at around 1pm last Friday, where the fresh search warrant was issued.
She said when Fatiaki was served with the warrant, they put Police on notice that they were invoking Section 1(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act, stating that information on the devices was confidential and privileged.
Suva High Court Judge Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu, who joined the proceedings online from Labasa, questioned whether the Magistrate who signed the warrant was aware of the High Court’s stay order on the FICAC proceedings.
Juleen Fatiaki said she was not aware and confirmed that Magistrate Sufia Hamza signed the warrant.
She also said that they have only been able to serve the motion to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions after receiving the files back from court this morning and have not been able to serve it to the Commissioner.
The hearing on the return of the devices will be held on Monday.
Meanwhile, DPP counsel Alisha Lal told the court they were appearing only as a friend of the court.
