Saneem, Tabuakuro set to face off as defamation case heads to trial

Former Supervisor of Elec­tions, Mohammed Saneem and Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Laisani Tabuakuro are ready to go head-to-head with the trial.

In this matter, Mr Saneem filed a lawsuit against Tabuakuro about a derogatory comment on his LinkedIn post shared from the Fiji Government page on July 3.

Mr Saneem shared the Attor­ney-General’s statement captioning it: ‘Abuse of office. None of his ac­tions are lawful. The State should be a model litigant. Those ap­pointments and terminations he purported to do are all unlawful.’

This post was in relation to the Supreme Court’s opinion of the illegibility of John Rabuku to hold office at the ODPP.

In the comment section- Ms Tabuakuro commented: ‘So rich coming from you. Stop telling lies, you unethical lawyer. The Supreme Court told you it will not rule on that issue, so there is no issue with your criminal charges.’

He is seeking an injunction re­straining Ms Tabuakuro from:

-Repeating the same thing again;

-Public apology

-Compensation and general damages;

-Damages under Law Reform Act and

-Cost on a full solicitor/ client indemnity.

Tabuakuro’s defence

Tabuakuro dismissed his claims saying Mr Saneem’s post could only be viewed by his followers and would only be seen by others if the post was re-shared.

She questioned the number of followers Mr Saneem had, she added his posts did not have more than two views and shares, mean­ing not a lot of people viewed his page.

She also cited the post by the Plaintiff to be misleading and dis­honest. It misled the public about the Supreme Court addressing the validity of Mr Rabuku’s ap­pointment.

Last Friday, both parties ap­peared before Acting Master Liyanage Wickramasekera ac­knowledging their readiness to move ahead with trial.

The trial is set for three days with four witnesses to be pre­sented by the plaintiff while Tabuakuro will present three witnesses.

The court is going to allocate the case to a Judge who will then fix a trial date.