High Court Judge Justice Vincent Perera will sum up the case of Jone Vakarisi Junior at 11.45am tomorrow.
Vakarisi is charged with a count each of arson and assault causing actual bodily harm.
While making his closing submissions, prosecution lawyer Eoghn Samisoni said that the first witness in the trial who was allegedly assaulted by the accused had confirmed that he knew “Pei” very well as he used to purchase weed from him.
Samisoni said that this should not be used against the witness in order to paint him as a bad person.
He added that the complainant who was allegedly assaulted by Vakarisi was adamant on the fact that the said “Pei” is Jone Vakarisi Junior.
He further said that the complainant had no motive to lie in court and gave evidence despite the threats made to him.
Samisoni also said that the fire officer that conducted investigations in the arson case confirmed that the place that the fire started from was a place where a fire was not supposed to start from.
Defense lawyer, Jerry Dinati during his closing submissions said that Vakarisi was wrongly identified and wrongly accused.
He added that the body language of the witness who was allegedly assaulted by Vakarisi was not convincing as he had some things that did not add up.
He said that the witness had told the court that he had bought weed from Vakarisi in 2004 when in reality, Vakarisi was in form 4 at the time.
He also questioned the assessors on whether Vakarisi looked like a man who smoked weed, drank alcohol or grog.
Dinati added that Vakarisi had said that on the said day, he was at home mixing cement.
He said Vakarisi is now a changed man and devotes his time to his family. He also said that Vakarisi had no reason to burn down the property of the first complainant as he was running a BBQ business.
Vakarisi with others is alleged to have burned the property of a man in Nasinu between the 5th to the 6th of September last year.
He is also alleged to have assaulted another man with others on the same dates.
