Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Lenora Qereqeretabua has today revealed in court that the allegations made by former school teacher, Kishore Kumar, impacted her emotionally and also affected her reputation.
Kumar is charged with allegedly making false claims on his Facebook page, Kishore Kumar Publications that there was a porn video of Qereqeretabua.
While giving evidence in the trial, Qereqeretabua said it was infuriating as Kumar’s allegations resulted in many comments, reactions, and shares on the post.
Qereqeretabua says she had to consider if the video was a political threat to her reputation or to the women who wanted to be in parliament in future.
She further says this also impacted her as her daughter had just gotten married.
Qereqeretabua says this affected her husband and her parents who are in their 80s, and the media and the public were questioning her about it.
She says she also felt embarrassed and angry and filed a complaint with the police as well.
She further says after Kumar was suspended as a teacher, he then was on the front page of the Fiji Times apologising, and went to Fiji TV asking for airtime to apologise.
The Assistant Minister says the principal of the school also called her and informed her that Kumar had requested the principal to accompany him to apologise to her.
However, she had refused to see them as the matter was before the courts.
She further says this makes it hard for women to be in office and parliament.
Qereqeretabua says even after the National Budget in July, Kishore uploaded videos and statements threatening her, however, he failed to provide any evidence.
She says she also had to disclose the matter to her husband and the church leader as this was not about her but the circle she was in as well.
