Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry says the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is not independent and has been influenced where the DPP has ruled that no charges will be laid on Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum regarding bombing incidents in 1987, however DPP Christopher Pryde says no Minister or other person outside their office had any influence on the decision.
Chaudhry says it comes as no surprise that the DPP has found insufficient credible or reliable evidence against Sayed-Khaiyum.
Chaudhry has questioned the credibility of the investigation and says the Attorney General was in a position to influence the process.
He says it took the DPP six months to realise there was no credible or reliable evidence in the case and this has been the enacting of a drama to fool the public.
Chaudhry says he had called on Sayed-Khaiyum to step down in November last year to allow the investigations to be conducted in a credible and independent manner.
Pryde says the decision to not lay any charges on Sayed-Khaiyum was based solely on whether there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable prospect of conviction.
Pryde says the only people involved in the legal advisory process and the decision on whether to charge a person or not are the initial legal officer who writes the legal opinion, the vetting manager, who is a Principal Legal Officer, and then the DPP who makes the final decision.
He says for difficult cases, an Assistant DPP will review the legal opinion and the final decision is still made by the DPP.
He further says when a police docket is received, it is allocated to a legal officer who has 21 days to complete the advice which is then vetted by a manager within 7 days who refers it to the DPP for a decision.
The DPP says the time taken to complete the advice and make a decision was within the normal timeframe for the completion of advice and decision.
We have also sent questions to the Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Pryde has decided that no charges will be laid against the Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, in relation to his alleged involvement in two bombing incidents in 1987.
The police file was sent to the DPP for an assessment of the evidence and a decision on whether any charges should be laid following a complaint that the Attorney General had been allegedly involved in two separate bombing incidents in 1987.
The DPP states that following a review of the police docket, it is their opinion that there is insufficient credible or reliable evidence to support any criminal charges being laid against the Attorney General and, therefore, the docket has been returned to police with the instruction not to charge and no further action is required.
The complainant, Veronica Malani had alleged that Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and his associates organised the making and detonation of home bombs around Viti Levu in order to injure and harm known Fijian targets sympathetic to the interim government, following the coups of May and September, 1987 by Sitiveni Rabuka.
Police had said earlier that initial information indicated that three people were charged for those alleged incidents and were subsequently dealt with in court.
Malani who is a former employee of the Land Transport Authority was charged by FICAC last year.
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