Nadi Magistrate Siromi Turaga who had acquitted two men charged with Failure to Comply with Orders of the Public Health Act yesterday after saying the order was made by the Prime Minister instead of the Health Minister, has today found a man guilty of Disobedience of Lawful Orders.
Magistrate Turaga has fined Abdul Ashram $300 after Ashram pleaded guilty today.
The charge particulars state that Ashram on the 4th of April 2020 in Nadi disobeyed the lawful orders of the Prime Minister, by breaching the curfew hours from 8pm to 5am.
In this case, Magistrate Turaga says that under section 202 of the Crimes Act, everyone who disobeys any order, warrant or command duly made, issued or given by any court, officer or person acting in any public capacity and duly authorized in that behalf, commits a summary offence. The penalty is 2 years imprisonment.
Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has said in a press conference that quite interestingly the same Magistrate has now not found any anomaly with the drafting of the charges, convicted Ashram and fined $300 to be paid in 2 months in default 30 days imprisonment.
He says today rather interestingly we have another ruling by the same magistrate acting completely contrary to the ruling he made yesterday.
Sayed-Khaiyum adds that they hope this will now highlight the judiciary needs to have consistency, not just in terms of the rulings that individual magistrates have but also in respect of the consistency in the tariffs that are actually handed out across the different jurisdictions in Fiji.
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