The President of the Fiji Court of Appeal, Justice William Callanchini has granted Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry leave to appeal his sentence and conviction.
However the stay application for Chaudhry’s conviction and sentence pending appeal has been dismissed.
This means that Chaudhry can appeal his conviction and sentence however during the appeal process, the conviction and sentence handed down by the High Court still stands.
Justice Callanchini has also granted Chaudhry’s application for an urgent hearing.
The case will be called again on Monday to fix the hearing date.
Justice Callanchini has advised Chaudhry’s lawyer, Anand Singh to advise the court on the date the nominations close to stand as a candidate for the September elections.
Mahendra Chaudhry was fined $2 million by High Court Judge Justice Paul Madigan in May.
He paid the fine on the 27th of last month.
Chaudhry’s conviction has also been recorded which means that he is ineligible to contest the 2014 general election.
Mahendra Chaudhry has to comply with the Exchange Control Act by the 31st of July this year which means that he needs to repatriate the 1.5 million Australian dollars held in Australia.
Failure to do so will make him liable to prosecution for continuing breach of the Exchange Control Act.
Meanwhile the Elections Office has already released the nomination dates for the candidates.
According to the dates released, the Writ of Elections will be issued on the 4th August.
On the same day voter and party registrations will close.
The end of the candidate nomination period is 18th August this year while the National Candidates List will be out on the 25th of August.
