President Had to Act

The state lawyer in the December 2006 High Court case which will determine the legality or otherwise of the December 5th takeover and the appointment of the interim government said President Ratu Josefa Iloilo could not let the throat of the nation be cut first before he acted.

Lawyer for Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Bainimarama and others, Queens Counsel Gerard McCoy said the President had seen an extreme situation and acted on it and whether Ratu Josefa Iloilo's decisions were correct or not, is simply beside the point in law.

McCoy has also revealed that the state would be dropping two issues, the Doctrine of Necessity and Doctrine of Acquiescence because all this will be deemed irrelevant if decisions are made that President's decisions were necessary at this time.

Lawyer for Qarase and other, QC Nye Perram has said that they will file for costs as they had prepared extensively on the issues in relation to the two doctrines.

It has also been highlighted by state lawyer, QC Guy Reynolds that the High Court should decide whether the communications between the President and Prime Minister could be made public.

This raises the question on whether all the minutes of the meetings between the President and Qarase or between the President and Bainimarama leading up to the events December 5th, 2006 should be discussed in open court.

This also raises the issue of the President having executive privilege and whether his correspondence or communication regarding affairs of the state should be made public. Reynolds said this issue should be weighed against public interest. The case continues before Justice Anthony Gates, Justice Davendra Pathik and Justice John Byrne.