Fijian and British national, Charlie Charters has filed a High Court motion after the Fiji Police Force returned seven seized electronic devices to Charters’ lawyer on Friday after the investigation against him was ended in the High Court, only for Fiji Police to immediately re-seize them under a fresh court order.
The seven devices include medical apps for the treatment and management of Charters’ throat cancer and heart condition that he has not been able to access for six months, as well as financial and payment Apps and hard drives on which his work product is stored.
Charters says you have always got to be braced for Fiji’s capacity to surprise but even they were shocked by what happened to his lawyer, Seforan Fatiaki when he presented himself to CID on Friday.
He says the investigation by FICAC has been thoroughly discredited in the High Court so it seems truly bizarre where this is going now.
Fatiaki had first applied to FICAC in writing for the return of the devices on March 16th.
In court on Friday August 7th, Magistrate Shageeth Somaratne ordered the Fiji Police to return the devices to Charters’ lawyer.
The devices had been seized a day after FICAC’s February 21st detention and arrest at Nadi Airport, and their subsequent charging of Charters, which was permanently stayed by the High Court on July 24th.
Charters says the Police do not appear to have understood Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu’s ruling.
He says the charges against him were stayed by the High Court for a number of reasons including that, in the absence of any law limiting his rights, we all enjoy the right of freedom of speech, expression, thought, opinion and publication under section 17 of the Constitution.
Charters says the judge has said that when expressing those rights, we also have the right not to divulge the sources of our journalistic information.
He also alleges there were significant errors in the search warrant documentation which would be part of the submissions that would be argued in the High Court action.
