It is a shocking denial of natural justice that the suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde, has been denied the ability to adequately defend himself against allegations of misbehaviour through the unilateral decision by the head of the Judicial Services Commission, the Acting Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, to terminate his salary. Yet there are clear signs of a conspiracy against the DPP that also involves the Attorney General, Graham Leung, and maybe the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, which goes to the heart of the credibility of the criminal justice system.
How else are we to explain the latest pronouncement by the three judges presiding over the case (Justice Anare Tuilevuka, Justice Samuela Qica and Justice Chaitanya Lakshman) that despite the fact that the Acting CJ assured the nation that the tribunal hearing would commence this week (August 19), the state’s affidavits are still coming in and there is no indication when Christopher Pryde and his lawyers will know the precise details of the case against him.
This is squarely in the court of the Attorney General, who is developing a habit of claiming that he has no control over certain processes when it is clear that he has. Just as Graham Leung has said he had no control over the Acting DPP, Nancy Tikoisuva, when she appointed the disgraced John Rabuku to be her Deputy (and being guilty of professional misconduct is a disgrace), Leung is pretending he has no influence in the Pryde case. But that is patently nonsense because this entire prosecution is demonstrably political and so is the unforgivable delay in setting a date for a Tribunal hearing.
It is also inconceivable that the decision to sever Christopher Pryde’s salary and deprive him of the income he needs to defend himself was the decision of the JSC alone. We know that Salesi Temo was handpicked by the Coalition to be Acting Chief Justice. We know that he worked with the former AG, Siromi Turaga, to engineer Pryde’s suspension. And it’s a fair bet that he is working with Graham Leung on the current tactics for dealing with the DPP’s case, which appear to be to delay the case for as long as it takes for Christopher Pryde to give up and walk away.
Grubsheet has long reported that it took Salesi Temo six months to convene a tribunal of judges to hear the original allegation of misbehaviour against Pryde for being seen in conversation with Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum at a Japanese Embassy function. Then another six months to produce a second allegation against him of allegedly receiving unauthorised superannuation payments dating back to 2012, something the DPP strongly denies
Incredibly, Christopher Pryde and his lawyer, Adish Narayan, still don’t know the precise details of the case against him as we approach the 17 month mark of his suspension in April 2023. That much is clear from the following extract of an email Pryde sent mainstream media outlets in Fiji yesterday:
“This matter was called for mention on Monday 19th August 2024 as the scheduled hearing set for 19th to 31st August 2024 was vacated.
The judges informed Mr Adish Narayan, counsel for the DPP that the Tribunal was not yet ready to proceed and could not fix any hearing dates since discovery was still not complete. The Tribunal was not able to advise when additional affidavits would be completed and served.
The Tribunal was informed that the JSC had still not acknowledged the DPP’s legal counsel’s correspondence on the issue of the unilateral suspension of the DPP’s salary. The Tribunal had been informed by Mr Narayan of the DPP’s inability to defend himself since without his salary he is unable to engage any counsel for the substantive hearing.
The Tribunal also noted the DPP’s concern that the cessation of his pay is crippling his defence“.
If this isn’t a stitch-up, what is? Even the judges are now acknowledging that Christopher Pryde has been put in an impossible position. Almost 17 months after his suspension, he still doesn’t have a hearing date ( making a liar of the Acting Chief Justice, who said it would start this week), he still doesn’t have all of the evidence against him and the Tribunal judges can’t tell him when the additional affidavits will be completed and served. And in the meantime, they accept that his defence is being crippled because the income he needs to defend himself has been summarily cut off.
It is six weeks tomorrow since the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, was on the front pages saying that Christopher Pryde was entitled to continue to be paid until there was a Tribunal finding against him. And still it hasn’t happened. Pryde’s salary still hasn’t been restored.
At first, it appeared to be a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and the Acting Chief Justice in which Salesi Temo was insisting on his independence to do as he pleases. But after six weeks, a much more sinister possibility is becoming clearer by the day. That the Prime Minister, his Attorney General and the Acting Chief Justice have conspired against Christopher Pryde to cut his legs off and try to force him to crawl away without the allegations against him ever coming to the Tribunal.
Certainly, the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Minister for Finance, Biman Prasad, have the power to reach a financial settlement with Christopher Pryde if they don’t want the embarrassment of a conga line of top people being called as witnesses in the case. Why haven’t they done so? Is it because they are conspiring to empty the DPP’s pockets so that the case never makes it to court?
We’ve seen the disgraceful comments in these columns over the months from people who cast Christopher Pryde as a white man (true) and lackey of the previous government (false). But what has happened to him at the hands of this sorry cast of characters over the past 17 months is a national scandal. As with the reappointment of John Rabuku to the ODPP, it is a dagger at the heart of public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Yet if they think Christopher Pryde is going to meekly walk away, they have sorely misjudged his own resolve. He may be hurting from the loss of his salary but a lot more damage is now being done to the reputations of his tormentors, who clearly wanted him gone because he is a white man and was part of the “old order”. How do we know that? Because when John Rabuku was Acting DPP, he specifically told one of Christopher Pryde’s assistants, Elizabeth Rice, that he was sacking her because she was “white”.
The inescapable conclusion is that they don’t have sufficient dirt to throw at Pryde and are still digging away trying to accumulate what they think they need to win. But Pryde’s motto in office – “Keep Calm and Carry On – is also his motto as his persecutors try to bleed him dry. And more damage is now being done to them than it is being done to him with every passing week.
Graham Leung. An expert at playing Pontius Pilate and washing his hands of responsibility. But we’re not that stupid.
Egg on his face or a co-conspirator? The headlines six weeks ago.
Nothing changes as the weeks and months tick by…
From Friday’s Fiji Sun:
The new most senior and all are iTaukei lawyers in DPPs office include one who was until recently doing speeding fines in Palau , another believes in witchcraft and was a very junior lawyer and a third who was illegally appointed had to be sacked again after being sacked twice in Nauru and has now been appointed again! . All the experienced barristers with years working in the supreme court and court of appeal with complete honesty and integrity have been kicked out illegally on grounds of race and replaced by clowns . This ugly and corrupt racist agenda is very disturbing and has no place in The DPPs office .
All involved are setting very high standards in the ODPP. From the Acting CJ, AG, PM to all the appointees. Standards have never been higher since Fiji was ceded to Britain and even after independence. You can only achieve high standards when you have a leader who practices high standards.
That is why Fiji is currently on the cusp of being a Singapore.
Just ask them.
While the judiciary is truly a sad indictment of the state of the nation, it should come as no surprise to people.
The people clamoured for this change. The people got the change they clamoured for, yearned for by fasting (and farting) and praying.
The people forgot the old adages: Better the devil you know. And: Be careful what you wish for.
Where previously we had strong arm tactics and a firm hand to keep some some semblance of order, new investment, infrastructure developments, we now have overt racism, ethnic cleansing of civil service, purely race-based appointments, open use of drugs and illicit sxx by govt ministers, adulterers, sexual deviants thugs, thieves, convicted drug gangster aligned with govt minister in businessman, interest free loans, rise in violent crimes, violent sxx crimes, home invasions, with a totally useless police force absent of any brain power.
Was the previous goverment perfect? Hell no! Were they better than this lot? Yes. Certainly not as bad as the current hypocrites.
At least we had equal citizenry, common name, a functioning judiciary, ministers and public servants being held to account, many but not all appointments were merit based.
We now have rogues in position of power and influence: a rogue santa clause effing moronic excuse for a cj gone, rouge ag and ddp, weed and bonking shameless ministers of women and assistant minister – who both now are advocating the death penalty.
A rogue and thuggish sugar minister running
amock as a drunk lout saying outlandish things against his own country and has (like the rest of them) unlimited overseas travel, for self-interested reasons.
We have a rogue minister of finance with no morals, no ethics, with a back bone of a jelly fish selling the poor voters down the creek to the tune of $200k, $5m, $3m lost to the lost tribe, HUGE self-indulgent salaries and benefits increases, with duty free priviliges.
All celebrated with a huge expensive party in a luxury hotel at tax payers expense.
A serial adulterer, treasous, bankrupt, and senile pm selling the nation to China, chiefs getting all-expenses paid chop suey tour to china to learn village life? Wtf.
The only thing we wish to read about this treasonous lying bastard is his obituary.
All this, and much more happening as strong, devout vulagi-religion bible thumping, vulagi hating christians cheer from the sidelines.
Totally lost on the devout christians here is they are NOT the lost tribe, China is NOT a christian nation but communists atheists.
And the fiji vulagis look on in hopeless despair, minding their own, not realising that they have too many ignorant idiots amongst their own to know or care what fate awaits them in the land of their birth.
And now, all the racist Christians, (who are not sure whether they are Christians or Israelites), are lining up to go to Australia a country which treats Fijian workers like mordern day slaves but they still want to leave and they still complain. They elect a recycled f*kcwit as the PM with great exuberance and ecstasy and then they complain even more? After he has finished with looting the NBF, now it is time to loot the FDB.
It is obvious that they do not know what the f*ck it is that they want, as long as the vulagi are kept out of office. I think that is it, isn’t it?
But, Fiji is gonna be like Singapore very soon, you just wait and see. Because straight after he comes back from China today, he will have all the secrets on how to pull the iTaukei from poverty. It is gonna be like magic. You just wait and see. Combined with the dickhead’s direct line with God and the secrets from China, miracles will happen very soon.
Or maybe he was just there to collect his daily $3000 travel per diem???? after 10 days, you do the math.
Maybe he is not a dickhead after all.
When debt becomes unmanageable, one is forced to sell assets and readjust. But when one is ignorant or an idiot, one eventually loses all. For many years I have admired Fiji with its “no casinos” policy, unlike Australia where weekly there are suicides by fools who have lost all from gambling. But Fiji is on the same precipice with the clever unscrupulous banker being China giving lots and taking more. The iTaukei will not know what hit them when their greedy, racist foolishness and stupidity grinds them to lose all, even their land to the new owner, the foreign one called China. Beware, Rabuka and followers! Be reminded that jet fuel IS running out so the tourist industry, the backbone of your economy (besides overseas aid), will almost cease in 20 years, and wise government is mandatory.
Time for the fused profession to end in Fiji. This would mean more emphasis on the integrity and credibility of people in the respective streams to be fit and proper and also demands more on the professional development of professions towards the bar proper. More needs to be done on the traction provided by experience and professional qualifications to avoid people being pitch forked into positions with little experience. We could well borrowing from other common law jurisdictions.
The Taukei are no different from blacks in USA. They keep on voting for the democrats who has done nothing for them.
Now they are propping up a Jamaican Indian woman masquerading as a black woman who as VP done nothing. The blacks like the taukei will vote for her.
You mean you want the blacks in USA to vote for “Donald Duck”?
Given these two choices I know who Iwould vote for.
Maybe it is the same in Fiji, which idiot do you vote for as there is no other choice, because all the politicians in Fiji are idiots?
Kila vata
What’s good in Trump?
Asking white Christians to vote for him as he was saved by God and vote once and for all so he remains in power forever.
A conman about to be convicted wants to rule America .
Calling white house belongs to whites.
Kenny,
During the Trump years there were no wars, gas prices, groceries were low and we had the best economy. The border was secure no mass illegal migration.
Trump also did not receive a salary, tell me which world leader would do that. Terrorists like AL Baghdadi and Qassem Solemani went to meet Allah.
Biden did a botched withdrawal of Aghanistan and left the Taliban with $80 Billion worth of Military hardware.
When Obama was President,Putin took Crimea, Putin did nothing during Trumps time and marched into Ukraine as soon as Biden took office.
Kila vata
Make no mistake
2 Indians will be ruling 2 powerhouse countries of this world.
India and America Tighten your seat belt.
The agenda of the “independent” cabal is for Chris to eventually join the orange-clad Frank & Co. What a brilliant line-up the cabal has in Temo, Turaga, Tikoisuva and Rabuku to execute that. Just like the invincible 1984 HK 7s backline of Nawalu, Niuqila, Laulau and Honda. Duncan coached them, as with Rabuka for the cabal, plus Leung his technical advisor. And similar to the magnificent NZ All Blacks’ inability to break through Duncan’s team, the cabal is impenetrable by any Vulagi whatsoever. One late exception though, Regan is he.
Christopher Pryde has committed no crime and there are no grounds whatsoever to raise the prospect of a prison sentence. He is a New Zealand citizen and they wouldn’t dare.
Not unless they want to put the New Zealand tourism market at risk plus $1.8-billion in trade. And ensure that no Kiwi ever takes a job in Fiji again.
Whoa! Another.mushroom sucking trumper! Never fail to make themselves shamelessly known. Kila vata sa sega ni kila veka!
The Orange blob is a pathological liar and always full of what in his adult Depends. Rest of what is say is just kool aid drunk parroting lies.
The Orange one started the afghan withdrawal. Biden merely managed the ensuing chaos as best as possible. If you took your head out of Orange blobs Depends, you will know Biden has not started any war! If the rest of the world is at war why blame Biden.
You my friend, are a true racist bigot. The Orange one hates immigrants. Yet all his wives were immigrants.
Have ever stopped to wonder what make-America-great-again actually means? It is a racist dog whistle.
When was america great for blacks and other immigrants groups? Slavery was great? The KKK was/is great? Japanese internment was great? Chinese internment was great? Anti italian and anti Irish and anti Polish racist teopes were great? Anti-semitism is great? Adulterous sxx with porn woman is great? Lying, cheating, shafting building contractors and many other debtors is great?
And you have the temerity to invoke racism about an accomplished educated upstanding woman candidate.
Do accomplished educated distinguished women scare the sh1t out of you toop? You do not know Kamal Harris’s journey. You don’t know ANYTHING a about her personally. To her, you do not even exist. You can only dream to be on her level. Stop with your racism!
The Orange one is saying to your face you’re are an idiot and he loves the uneducated. And you are saying “that is great–I love the rapist, 34 times convicted felon, 6-times bankrupted, p×ssy grabbing, about-to-go-to-prison, immigrant hating, misogynistic, loser?”
All of the serial adulterer wives were immigrants for crying out aloud! The Orange mushroom has been ordered to pay 86m for raping a woman in a department store changing room, and for repeated defamation. Good grief.
He lies and cheats on his taxes and property valuations and insurance claims. Does not pay loans. No bank in America will loan to his companies anymore.
The Orange blob is a crazy weird idiot who surrounds himself with likeminded psycophants who all are a repulsive basket of horrible people, all of who are more than willing to sell out their fellow Americans to russia, including, incredibly, his running mate. They are each as craven as the Orange blob. He has jews on his team who hate on jews. Crikey. With ‘friends’ like that….
What a nightmare for America if he were to be elected. Benjamin Franklin said we get the government we deserve. Maybe MAGAts deserve this immoral sex offender, but certainly no one else does.
The only reason he is running is to avoid real prison time. You and he don’t know the US voters will ensure he never gets to the Oval office ever again.
Were you born stupid or is today your special day? Are you a southern white? Perhaps an evangelical white southerner? Or a are you an immigrant bigot?
If you are native bushman go back to where you came from! Go away.