Jalal criticizes Acting DPP for ignoring Supreme Court opinion

International Human Rights lawyer, Imrana Jalal says it is beyond extraordinary to her, and a complete violation of the rule of law that a senior law official, a trained lawyer such as the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions John Rabuku should wait for an administrative letter from any government agency before acting appropriately in accordance with a legal opinion of the highest court in Fiji, the Supreme Court.

On her facebook page, Jalal says she is literally flabbergasted and stunned that a lawyer who she actually likes, a former student, and who she knows as a charming and sweet man, should have such chutzpah as to thumb his nose at an opinion of the Supreme Court.

She says such personal hubris and that she would have been packing her bags on the day of the opinion by Supreme Court, preserving her dignity and shaking the hands of her lawyer colleagues at the ODPP, wishing them luck and advising them to protect the rule of law at all costs.

The international human rights lawyer says that is a dignified exit and what Rabuku is doing is not a dignified exit.

She says the Supreme Court is the highest authority in Fiji, higher than the Judicial and Legal Service Commissions, higher than any government official or tribunal or commission, including the Prime Minister, there is nothing beyond the Supreme Court.

Jalal says any time a lawyer refuses to act in accordance with a legal opinion, ruling, declaration, directive, whatever the form, he or she is doing more damage to the rule of law, frittering away at the apparatus and mechanics that provide the framework for lawyers to function; like a surgeon destroying his/her scapel.

She asks how can lawyers expect the public to respect the rule of law if they do not respect it.

Jalal says as if the 16 years of the previous government did not do enough damage to the rule of law, more is being done to destroy it now.

She says the Acting DPP should be giving lessons in law and administrative governance to 2 seasoned senior lawyers such as the new Attorney General and the President of the Fiji Law Society would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frankly tragic and she weeps for the rule of law in Fiji.