President of the Fiji Law Society, Wylie Clarke says Justice David Ashton-Lewis, the Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry into the appointment of Barbara Malimali as FICAC Commissioner had said to Clarke in their meet and greet session before the COI that Justice Ashton-Lewis should be the Chief Justice of Fiji.
However, Justice Ashton-Lewis says he never made those comments in that meet and greet session and he does not behave like that, although he did confirm to fijivillage News today that he spoke to Clarke and lawyer, Hemendra Nagin during a dinner in December 2023 that he was approached in 2021 by Sitiveni Rabuka, who was the Leader of the Opposition at the time, if Justice Ashton-Lewis would be interested in becoming the Chief Justice of Fiji, and again after becoming Prime Minister, Rabuka approached him again on whether he would be interested in becoming the Chief Justice.
While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan, Clarke said during the meet and greet session, Justice Ashton-Lewis seemed more interested in knowing what the Law Society's attitude would be to an expatriate Chief Justice and Clarke says he refused to engage with him as it was inappropriate.
Clarke adds Justice Ashton-Lewis also said that he (Justice Ashton-Lewis) should be Chief Justice.
He says he and others in the room including Janet Mason and the Secretary of the COI from the Prime Minister's Office were shocked.
Clarke says he told Justice Ashton-Lewis that this is a really inappropriate conversation as the Law Society has no role to play in the appointment of the Chief Justice and it was inappropriate to discuss about Justice Ashton-Lewis becoming the Chief Justice because the COI in it's terms of reference were supposed to deal with the Judicial Services Commission and the Chairman of the JSC, who is the Chief Justice Salesi Temo.
However Justice Ashton-Lewis maintains that the only conversation that took place was during the dinner in December 2023 about the Prime Minister asking him if he was interested in becoming the Chief Justice.
Justice Ashton-Lewis says he was sworn in as a Supreme Court judge in December 2023.
He says he remembers Clarke and Nagin saying to him at the time for him to take up the post if offered.
Clarke has maintained that he never spoke to Justice Ashton-Lewis about taking up the Chief Justice post.
