Tag: FIJI

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Pointing out spelling error lands Indo-Fijian lawyer in soup

The High Court in Suva gave its decision last week after a complaint by Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who described Naidu’s post as malicious and inviting others to mock the judiciary…reports Asian Lite News

Prominent Indian-origin lawyer Richard Naidu has been found guilty of contempt and scandalising the court for pointing out a spelling error in a judgement.

Naidu may face a jail-term for his Facebook post in February 2022 in which he posted a picture of a judgement in a case that had the word ‘injunction’ wrongly spelt as ‘injection’.

“Maybe our judges need to be shielded from all this vaccination campaigning. I’m pretty sure all the Applicant wanted was an injunction,” Naidu said in his post with a “thinking face” emoji.

The High Court in Suva gave its decision last week after a complaint by Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who described Naidu’s post as malicious and inviting others to mock the judiciary, the RNZ reported.

The case will be called on January 5, 2023 to hear sentencing and mitigation submissions.

In Fiji, the sentencing range for contempt of scandalising the court appears to be between three to six months’ imprisonment.

According to law associations and human rights organisations, Naidu’s sentencing is a “violation of the right to freedom of expression”.

Amnesty International said it “believes that the charges are an excessive and politically motivated response to pointing out a spelling error in a court judgment and violate the right to freedom of expression”.

“Pursuing a lawyer with criminal or administrative punishment for pointing out accurately on social media a spelling mistake in a public court judgment is manifestly disproportionate and a violation of his right to exercise his freedom of expression,” the rights group said in a statement.

Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International Pacific Researcher, tweeted that “the charges are ridiculous and should be thrown out!”

In a statement, The Bar Association of India called upon the Attorney-General of Fiji “to forthwith bring the proceedings to a satisfactory closure by causing the conviction to be annulled”.

“The Bar Association of India calls on the Fijian judiciary to respect the right to freedom of expression. The Fijian judiciary’s reputational excellence is not lowered in any way by mere statements or humorous remarks,” Bar Association President, Prashant Kumar, said.

The Law Council of Australia noted in a statement that “Naidu was denied procedural fairness and was not afforded a fair trial”.

Naidu is a long-time critic of the present government in Fiji.

The South Pacific nation goes to polls on December 14.

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India, Fiji team up to promote Hindi

Hindi is one of the three official languages spoken in the country, the other two being Fijian and English….reports Asian Lite News

In a bid to promote Hindi, officials from India and Fiji are in talks to set up a modern language laboratory in the South Pacific nation, Indian High Commissioner to Fiji Palaniswamy Karthigeyan has said.

Hindi is one of the three official languages spoken in the country, the other two being Fijian and English.

“The government of India is also thinking of doing something to promote the (Hindi) language here,” Karthigeyan said, addressing the media recently.

“So as part of this, there is a proposal to kind of gift a modern language laboratory to Fiji and this will obviously focus on Hindi and we intend to do that in cooperation with the Government of Fiji,” he added.

The move comes ahead of the 12th World Hindi Conference next year from February 15-17, 2023, which will be hosted by Fiji, making it the first country in the Pacific to host the prestigious event.

Over a thousand delegates are expected to be part of the inaugural event, which will include Hindi-speaking scholars, language academics, and other officials.

“We are discussing with them the logistics of this and to locate the format of those things but the entire software and hardware for this language laboratory will be gifted by the government of India but the location and things are being discussed,” The Fiji Times quoted Karthigeyan as saying.

The three-day conference would be held in the Fijian city of Nadi — home to Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami temple, the largest Hindu shrine in the Pacific.

“Space will be provided by the local stakeholders, it can be a government institution or it can be an institution of higher learning like universities or even some well recognised schools. The discussions have been initialised but we are hopeful that we are able to finalise this,” the High Commissioner said.

Fiji Hindi, also known as ‘Fijian Baat’ or ‘Fijian Hindustani’, is the language spoken by Indo-Fijians, and is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi, IANS reported earlier.

The language developed during the peak of the British Indentured labour system, where Indians, brought to the island between 1879 and 1916, were recruited as labourers to work on the sugarcane and cotton plantations.

Fiji Hindi is enshrined in the country’s Constitution as one of the official languages. The language is also taught in the country’s primary and secondary schools.

While it is compulsory for students of Indian origin in primary schools, it is an optional subject in secondary schools, and is also taught in Fiji’s universities.

“With a significant portion of our population having Indian heritage, we have worked together to ensure the protection and promotion of our languages, traditions, and culture. We are proud to say that Fijian scholars have made a contribution towards developing Hindi not just in Fiji but across the world via the Fijian diaspora,” Anjeela Jokhan, Permanent Secretary for Fijian Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, had said last month.

A Regional Hindi Conference was held in Suva in 2002.

Indians make around 38 percent of the Fiji population. As of 2021, there are 3.20 lakh Indians approximately in the country, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs data.

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India sends indelible ink to Fiji for elections

Earlier in June, while responding to a request from the FEO, India gifted four multi-purpose double cab vehicles to the Fijian election body…writes Ateet Sharma

India, the world’s largest and most vibrant democracy, is once again assisting big-time the South Pacific nation of Fiji in conducting its forthcoming general elections.

On Monday, P S Karthigeyan, the High Commissioner of India to Fiji, handed over 5500 bottles of indelible ink to the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) under a special grant of the Indian government for use in the upcoming elections in the island country.

Earlier in June, while responding to a request from the FEO, India gifted four multi-purpose double cab vehicles to the Fijian election body.

Karthigeyan had then conveyed to FEO Chairperson Mukesh Nand that as a friend of Fiji, India stands ready to further assist the election body in any area of electoral management.

It is not the first time that India is helping Fiji conduct elections in an efficient manner.

In 2014, New Delhi donated 10 Mahindra SUV vehicles and 4400 bottles of inedible ink. Four years later, India delivered five Mahindra SUVs and 6000 bottles of inedible ink for the 2018 elections.

In addition, a three-member delegation from the Election Commission of India participated in the Multinational Observer Group (MOG) during the previous elections along with representatives from Australia and Indonesia.

While India’s links with Fiji began in the late 19th century when Indian labourers were brought to the Pacific shores by Britishers under the indenture system to work on sugarcane plantations, the bond has got remarkably strengthened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Suva in November 2014.

Since then, the Indian government has extended a Line of Credit worth millions of US dollars, provided grants, and financial assistance during floods and cyclones, supplied sewing machines, Akash tablets, tractors, medical diagnostic kits, tuberculosis medicines, anti-retroviral drugs for HIV patients, helped in upgradation of the sugar industry and also prioritized Fiji while providing Covid medicines to 150 countries as the nation battled a deadly Covid wave in 2021.

In April, while virtually attending the opening ceremony of Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital – one of its kind children’s heart hospital in the entire South Pacific region – PM Modi highlighted that the shared legacy of India-Fiji relations is based on the sense of service of humanity.

“There is a vast sea between our two countries, but our culture has kept us connected with each other. Our relationships are built on mutual respect, cooperation, and the strong mutual ties of our people. It is the good fortune of India that we have been getting the opportunity to play a role and contribute to the socio-economic development of Fiji,” said the Prime Minister in his speech.

Right from PM Modi’s participation in the first meeting of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Co-operation (FIPIC-I) in 2014 to Fijian Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama’s attendance at the Founding Conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in New Delhi in 2018 and their subsequent interactions, the top leadership of both countries continues to jointly counter the complex strategic challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.

(India Narrative)

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US wins case to seize Russian superyacht in Fiji, sails away

Kumar said he accepted arguments that keeping the superyacht berthed in Fiji at Lautoka harbor was “costing the Fijian government dearly.”..reports Asian Lite News

The United States won a legal battle on Tuesday to seize a Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji and wasted no time in taking command of the $325 million vessel and sailing it away from the South Pacific nation.

The court ruling represented a significant victory for the US as it encounters obstacles in its attempts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. While those efforts are welcomed by many who oppose the war in Ukraine, some actions have tested the limits of American jurisdiction abroad.

In Fiji, the nation’s Supreme Court lifted a stay order which had prevented the US from seizing the superyacht Amadea.

Chief Justice Kamal Kumar ruled that based on the evidence, the chances of defense lawyers mounting an appeal that the top court would hear were “nil to very slim.”

Kumar said he accepted arguments that keeping the superyacht berthed in Fiji at Lautoka harbor was “costing the Fijian government dearly.”

“The fact that US authorities have undertaken to pay costs incurred by the Fijian government is totally irrelevant,” the judge found. He said the Amadea “sailed into Fiji waters without any permit and most probably to evade prosecution by the United States of America.”

The US removed the motorized vessel within an hour or two of the court’s ruling, possibly to ensure the yacht didn’t get entangled in any further legal action.

Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the US Justice Department, said on Twitter that the superyacht had set sail for the US under a new flag, and that American authorities were grateful to police and prosecutors in Fiji “whose perseverance and dedication to the rule of law made this action possible.”

In early May, the Justice Department issued a statement saying the Amadea had been seized in Fiji, but that turned out to be premature after lawyers appealed.

It wasn’t immediately clear where the US intended to take the Amadea, which the FBI has linked to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.

Fiji Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde said unresolved questions of money laundering and the ownership of the Amadea need to be decided in the US.

“The decision acknowledges Fiji’s commitment to respecting international mutual assistance requests and Fiji’s international obligations,” Pryde said.

In court documents, the FBI linked the Amadea to the Kerimov family through their alleged use of code names while aboard and the purchase of items such as a pizza oven and a spa bed. The ship became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war.

The 106-meter (348-foot) -long vessel, about the length of a football field, features a live lobster tank, a hand-painted piano, a swimming pool and a large helipad.

Lawyer Feizal Haniff, who represented paper owner Millemarin Investments, had argued the owner was another wealthy Russian who, unlike Kerimov, doesn’t face sanctions.

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UK and Fiji seal new deal on Maritime Security

He acknowledged the British High Commissioner Dr. Brian Jones for his unwavering support towards the new initiative, which further strengthens the diplomatic ties between Fiji-UK…reports Asian Lite News

Fiji’s commitment towards securing and policing its maritime borders is recognised through the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Fijian Government.

The MOU was officially signed by the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Office of the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs, Mr. Yogesh Karan and the British High Commissioner to Fiji, His Excellency Dr. Brian Jones, on Saturday 19 March, 2022 on board the Royal Navy’s Ship HMS Spey. His Excellency The President of Fiji was also at the signing.

In welcoming the new partnership, PS Karan on behalf of the Honourable Prime Minister, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, thanked the Government of the United Kingdom of the Great Britain for the exemplary partnership in further advancing our shared commitment on oceans conservation, climate change and tackling maritime security challenges.

He acknowledged the British High Commissioner Dr. Brian Jones for his unwavering support towards the new initiative, which further strengthens the diplomatic ties between Fiji-UK.

This collaboration, he said illustrates Fiji and UK’s strong historical ties and solidarity in areas of climate change, oceans, trade, defence and security. PS Karan said the partnership aligns with Fiji-UK’s commitment on oceans and implementation of the SDG Agenda 2030 vision of a sustainable ocean or SDG 14.

It also complements Fiji’s existing capabilities in maritime management and further elevates the bilateral relations between Fiji and UK, which has continued to deepen in mutual interests and priorities.

PS Karan conveyed the Fijian Government’s appreciation to HMS Spey’s Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Macnae and her crew for their remarkable commitment and service that reaches Fiji, Pacific and beyond.

The British High Commissioner to Fiji, Dr. Brian Jones, said, “The signing of this agreement means Fijian sailors will be able to board Royal Navy vessels and vice versa. This will allow us to work more closely together to combat illegal maritime activity in the Pacific. HMS Spey, currently here with us in Suva, is expected to be in the Pacific for five years or more. Learning from partners like Fiji on the challenges faced and working together on solutions is key for us.”

Rear Admiral Simon Asquith OBE, Commander of Operations for the Royal Navy, said, “This MOU enables the Royal Navy and several Fijian civil and military maritime authorities to exchange personnel between them for the purpose of “shipriding”. Such activity provides invaluable training and experience to the embarked “shiprider”, improving co-operation, co-ordination and interoperability.”

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