High Court Judge, Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu says the court is highly concerned as to the deliberate circumvention and consequential violation of sections 54 and 55(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 rendering the transfer of a FICAC criminal case to police prosecution as an ultra vires act or unlawful act.
Despite the High Court ruling for the release of Fijian and British national, Charlie Charters' 7 devices after a permanent stay on the FICAC proceedings against Charters, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Nancy Tikoisuva highlighted in Charters' case of the release of the devices that FICAC had transferred the criminal case against former FICAC officers to police prosecution bypassing the ODPP.
This was highlighted in Justice Bulamainaivalu's judgement, where he ordered for the Police to immediately return the devices to Charters.
Tikoisuva has highlighted that the transfer of the case by FICAC to police prosecution bypassing the Office of the DPP is directly in violation of sections 54 and 55(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 which state that every police officer lawfully conducting a prosecution and every public prosecutor appointed by the Director of Public Prosecutions shall be subject to the directions of the DPP, and the DPP and the Commissioner of FICAC may at any time transfer to each other the conduct of any prosecution at any time before the close of the prosecution case.
Justice Bulamainaivalu has highlighted that in such a case the public prosecutor or FICAC prosecutor as the case may be, is deemed to have been appointed by the DPP or Commissioner of FICAC to prosecute.
We are currently trying to get Acting FICAC Commissioner, Lavi Rokoika on what the judge has determined as an unlawful act.
