Once again, Salesi Temo has demonstrated misbehaviour on an industrial scale that more than warrants his suspension yet an equally corrupt President who happens to be his relative plus a corrupt Prime Minister conspire to keep him in office.
It wasn’t enough for Temo to be accused of perjury and obstructing and perverting the course of justice by the Ashton-Lewis Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry. In any other functioning democracy, he would already be on trial and his judicial career in ruins. But not in good ‘ol lawless Fiji. Being corrupt is a plus if you can manipulate the political process and checkmate the system so successfully.
It simply beggars belief to any outsider that Temo can – with a straight face – again delay his judgment against Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Mohammed Saneem in their trial that concluded more than seven months ago. It was due to be delivered this morning after successive delays but as he has done before, Temo waited until the verdict was meant to be delivered before announcing that he was putting it off AGAIN until June 26.
By the time that comes around – assuming it isn’t postponed once more and there is no reason to think that it won’t be given Temo’s record – this judgment will be perilously close to the gestation period for a human baby. It is utterly unconscionable and especially when the two men have young children who must be totally traumatised about their fathers’ fate.
Once again, everyone including the pair’s lawyers were brought to the court only to be turned away when Temo could have easily instructed the Chief Registrar, Tomasi Bainivalu, to inform the parties in advance that it would be again delayed, costing everyone time and money. These are the actions of a selfish, inconsiderate pig, not a proper chief justice with a sacred duty to uphold the rule of law (yes this vuaka swore on the Bible to uphold the Constitution and he has done everything but).
But will anyone call Temo out for his scandalous dereliction of duty? The credibility of the man who heads our judiciary – along with most other aspects of governance – has collapsed but no-one in any position of authority – even the Opposition – is prepared to register even the mildest reproach.
No foreign investor can have any confidence in a country with a judiciary that has been so compromised, never mind extra-judicial killings and institutions of state tainted by the drug trade and criminal activity generally and a political class that with certain honourable exceptions, is turning a blind eye to the nation’s steady destruction.
Grubsheet was warned that there would be another delay today because it is the one thing Temo can use to ensure that Rabuka and the President don’t move against him – the prospect of Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum being found guilty and unable to ever stand for political office again.
It is called blackmail anywhere else and it is precisely what is happening in this instance – a scandal without precedent in the history of the judiciary in Fiji.
The tragedy is that there are good judges whose reputations are being sullied by the conduct of the man who presides over them. And they, and we, are infinitely the poorer for the dereliction of duty of the President and the Prime Minister in declining to remove Temo from the system and make him accountable for his blatant misconduct.
Background on this appalling miscarriage of justice, simply because of the time-honoured principle that justice delayed is justice denied.
NOTE TO READERS:
The scale of Salesi Temo’s wrongdoing is so extensive that only by typing his name into the search engine on the right ( or below if you are viewing from a phone) can you appreciate the extent of the case against him.
All on top of the astonishing hypocrisy of this miserable oaf.
Do as I say, not as I do. Totally unfit to be Chief Justice or to hold any other public office for that matter.
Justice delayed becomes accountability denied.
No institution should be beyond scrutiny, including the judiciary. When important decisions are repeatedly deferred again and again without proper explanation, public confidence suffers.
Fiji deserves transparent, timely, and accountable leadership at every level.
Why are we taxpayers funding this level of incompetence and tolerating this lack of accountability?
This type of behavior is synonymous with this government and we are all getting tired of it.
Is it therefore coincidental that this individual, the current CJ, made a presentation recently to constitutional committee for the local judiciary to serve beyond the mandatory age limit – was it 72 or 75 years of age ? Forget it ! the poor man evidently can’t even cope right now at his current age with his current work load, this is becoming ridiculous .. is there no shame with self interest ? What about the public interest ? And mindfulness of the public funds being used to fund inefficiencies?
Media saraga, 10 years for $52,000
Whereas, Vatia Wharf 3 Billion Dollars Haul, 5 released 8 weeks ago to name the big fish.
This CJ is incompetent!
To again delay his judgment is to demonstrate his lack of competency.
Just what does it take for the President and Prime Minister to suspend the CJ under s.111 of the Constitution? Or is he one of the ‘protected’ due to family connections?
Fiji’s justice system is becoming a joke!
GD. To be more specific, this trial concluded on 7th November 2025, and the ruling has now again been adjourned to 26th June 2026, which equates to nearly seven and a half months.
You are right. Amended accordingly. Vinaka.
The CJ is a law unto himself even after being named and shamed by the FICAC Commission. I think the more notorious you are the more suitable you are to be appointed to the highest jobs in the land. It must be a traditional and cultural thing or in other words it is downright racism which takes precedence over anything else in the new Fiji. And proudly so because this is their country after all.
It really shouldn’t be this way. Once it starts it never gets better until someone makes a stand. Someone stops the rot and the corruption, where is that someone?
Every day that passes, it gets worse and if Fiji wants to survive and prosper, what is happening with the police, the government and the military has to end and overseas people without familial connections need to be brought in to take over the jobs of those that are causing the demise of this country and get it back on track, now.
On this auspicious date today – May 14. Let there be a judicial Coup to fix the disgrace of the judicial chambers of CJ. With the unfettered lawlessness it is in – There is NO OTHER WAY.
( Disgrace is an understatement).
Military action – the only way things are fixed in Fiji. The way the world should be.
May I be pointed towards the specific law that is being broken by the CJ delaying his judgement please?
There may be no law that has been broken but it is the height of hypocrisy for the Chief Justice to criticise delays in the courts and then delay judgments himself. And in such a high-handed and unconscionable manner.
May I also remind you of the overriding judicial principle that justice delayed is justice denied. And point to the fact that Salesi Temo has willfully broken the law on other occasions, including appointing John Rabuku as Acting DPP in defiance of the supreme law, the Constitution, when Rabuku had been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission.
Three Supreme Court judges overturned that decision, effectively declaring the CJ’s decision unlawful, but Temo’s stooge, Nancy Tikoisuva, appointed Rabuku as Deputy DPP anyway.
And then there is the outrageous conduct of the CJ in declaring Christopher Pryde a thief in open court only to have the three High Court Judges in Pryde’s case find him not guilty of misbehaviour. What did Temo do? After Pryde had been reinstated, he engineered the charging of Pryde anyway on trumped up counts of expenses fraud in a travesty of justice that is still before the courts. While refusing to suspend Pryde again and put him before another panel of judges because that too was destined to fail.
The man is a serial violator of the law who manipulates it for his own purposes, as we are now seeing not only with Christopher Pryde but Khaiyum and Saneem. Which makes him singularly unfit to head the judiciary in Fiji, on top of all the other outrages of his blighted career, like blaming rape victims for inviting assault because of their dress and conduct.
There is also the adverse finding against him by the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry that accused him of perjury and obstructing and perverting the course of justice when he allegedly told the former acting FICAC deputy commissioner, Francis Puleiwai, that no charge she laid would be heard by any court in Fiji. He should have immediately been suspended and put before a tribunal of judges – in accordance with the Constitution – yet remains as a malignant presence at the pinnacle of the judiciary.
It is a disgrace that he is still in office courtesy of his patrons, the Paedophile President and Prime Minister Rolex Rambo, who 39 years ago today, plunged Fiji into an abyss from which we have yet to emerge.
What a miserable trio.
Inconsiderate pig all right,that sums up the judiciary and the state of law and order in Vitia.
More waste to energy projects needed now.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Not displaying good leadership either. Then again what’s wrong with a bit of Fiji time.
In this instance and a great many others, everything.
But isn’t he doing Aiyaz and Saneem a favour by delaying the verdict and sentencing?
I guess both accused would be happy about it. They know they are on borrowed time and Temo is increasing that.
The dreary prospect of jail for both Aiyaz and Saneem would actually be making them feel relieved after every delay. They get to spend more time with their children.
Ain’t it grand that you already know the verdict? The sorry state of the judicial system in Fiji.
The presumptions by locals is hideous. It has all to do with prejudice and racism. These things are so normal people do not even realise it. They teach this norm to their children and bring them up to be prejudiced. The whole country and its people are f**ked and they do not realise it.