The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by the former Commissioner Central Inoke Devo, and agreed with the Court of Appeal’s decision regarding his conviction.

The Supreme Court accepted the arguments made by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC).

The case was called before Chief Justice Anthony Gates, Justice Suresh Chandra and Justice Chandra Ekyanayake.

FICAC was represented by Rashmi Aslam and Devo was represented by Anand Singh.

Devo was convicted on three counts of abuse of office and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment on April 9, 2010.

He was convicted on the premise that he had acted arbitrarily in the abuse of his office by directing the staff and using the official vehicle to collect liquor for unofficial purposes in 2005 and 2006.

Having served the sentence, Devo appealed his conviction nearly two years later, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on February 23, 2017.

Appeal Grounds

He had appealed to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment on seven grounds.

Devo had two main legal arguments.

Firstly, he argued that the arbitrary act alleged was not closely associated with the abuse of office.

Secondly he argued that there were no financial rules or regulations exhibited or proven to establish the arbitrary act in the abuse of authority.

FICAC ably argued that the holistic conduct of Devo constituted an inseparable link of his act and motive which established the abuse of office and there was no strict way of proving the act of abuse of office using financial rules and regulations as the conduct could constitute an arbitrary act in a variety of means.

Edited by Caroline Ratucadra

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