Judge hits back at former A-G

Commission of Inquiry chairperson Justice David Ashton-Lewis has hit back at former Attorney-General Graham Leung’s public rejection of the inquiry’s findings, saying Leung “failed to carry out his job” during the controversial appointment of Barbara Malimali.

Speaking to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on Saturday, Justice AshtonLewis said Mr Leung did not do his job properly.

The exchanges have opened the can worms in the appointment of Ms Malimali as the Commissioner of Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC).

“Well, of course he would publicly reject the findings because he is adversely named. I never said that he conspired. My point was that he didn’t do his job properly;” Justice Ashton-Lewis said.

” … and both of them (Graham Leung and Chief Justice Salesi Temo) failed when they got word that Malimali had complaints against her for abuse of office currently running in FICAC. They should have gone further and stopped her appointment and said we need to do further investigation in that. Neither of them did.”

Justice Ashton-Lewis defended the Commission’s work against claims that it exceeded its mandate.

“They’ve got to produce evidence of that. Ms Waqanika and Ms Malimali may hold that view. All I can say to them is Ms Mason and myself followed the terms of reference absolutely to the final point,” he said.

“Because the terms of reference were not only about Barbara Malimali’s appointment. I found her appointment to be rushed by all those other named people who wanted to get her in. They wanted cases against most of them themselves and other government people closed or thrown out. So I found that the appointment was rushed.

"She was appointed illegally, not according to openness and integrity.

“They can say I was wrong. They can say I was biased. I did my job properly.”

Justice Ashton-Lewis said while he anticipated lawyers involved in the inquiry to file an application in the High Court to have the report quashed, citing alleged breaches of the Commission’s terms of reference, he is adamant that the inquiry adhered fully to its legal scope.

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