Fate of Bainimarama and Qiliho will be determined next Thursday.

A minute of silence was observed at the Magistrates Court in Suva to honour the late Acting Director of Public Prosecutions David Toganivalu yesterday.

He represented the State in the case against former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended Commissioner of Police Sitiveni Qiliho.

Bainimarama and Qiliho will know their fate next Thursday, October 12.

The matter was called for closing submissions before Magistrate Seini Puamau.

Associate of the late Acting Director of Public Prosecutions David Toganivalu, Nimisha Shankar yesterday asked the court for more time to file her closing submissions because of the sudden passing of Mr Toganivalu on Monday.

Magistrate Puamau told the State and the defence lawyers to file and serve written submissions by 4pm tomorrow.

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) Lawyer Nimisha Shankar outside Court on October 4, 2023. Photo: Ronald Kumar

Defence lawyer Devanesh Sharma, was also consulted on the matter of moving the closing submission deadline to Friday afternoon.

During the proceedings, Magistrate Puamau said the court noted that there was no senior counsel from the ODPP.

She turned to ODPP lawyer, Ms Shankar and pointed out her lack of experience, Ms Shankar agreed.

Magistrate Puamau will go through the submissions over the weekend and a judgment will be delivered on Thursday, October 12 at the Magistrate’s Court in Suva.

The trial began on July 17 and nine State witnesses had testified, including former Acting COMPOL Rusiate Tudravu.

The defence then applied for a ‘No Case to Answer’ on August 9, which was denied by the Court in a ruling on September 7.

The charges: 

Bainimarama is charged with attempt to pervert the course of justice. It is alleged that sometime between July 2020 and September 2020 at Suva, Bainimarama attempted to pervert the course of justice by telling the suspended Commissioner of Police, Sitiveni Qiliho to stay away from the University of the South Pacific investigations that was reported on July 12, 2019.

Qiliho is charged with abuse of office.

It is alleged that Qiliho on July 15, 2020, at Suva, being employed in the public service as the Commissioner of Police of Fiji, directed the director of criminal investigations department Serupepeli Neiko and Inspector Reshmi Dass to stop investigations into the Police complaint involving CID/HQ PEP 12/07/2019, in the abuse of the authority of his office, which was an arbitrary act prejudicial to the rights of the University of the South Pacific.

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