Three charged with treason in Fiji on Home Services

Jan

Three charged with treason in Fiji

posted by admin in Window Cleaning

The three, whose names have been withheld, will also be charged with inciting mutiny and five counts each of conspiracy to murder.

The news has been announced by Police Commissioner Elesa Teleni just a short time after a Suva lawyer visited detained New Zealander Ballu Khan.

Tevita Fa saw Khan at Suva’s public hospital where he was taken after being assaulted during arrest on Saturday.

“He is a sick man,” Mr told Fairfax Media.

“There are visible signs of injuries on his face. He complained to me that he has got internal pain.”

He said Khan spoke well but they did not discuss the injuries.

“The army and the police were listening attentively.”

Fa said he told his client, who has not been arrested or charged yet, that he did not have to give any statements or interviews to the police unless his lawyer was present.

Teleni told reporters earlier today that Khan sustained his injuries while resisting arrest on Saturday.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Khan, suffered injuries so severe he was having trouble speaking but Teleni has denied this.

“Let me assure you that Ballu Khan sustained only minor injuries and has been treated at (the Colonial War Memorial Hospital).

“These injuries were the result of both Mr Khan and his bodyguard resisting arrest and assaulting police officers.”

Police say he was one of 16 men in custody who planned to kill Bainimarama, who staged a coup last December.

Police Commissioner Esala Teleni claimed at lunchtime there were armed groups travelling in Fiji, involved in the plot.

In a statement Bainimarama says there were “disgruntled groups” who had the potential to go to the extreme, but also says his country is safe for tourists and his police will do everything to safeguard them.

Tourism is Fiji’s major foreign exchange earner and Bainimarama said visiting tourists could be assured authorities would do everything to safeguard them.

He asked the international community to “allow the normal process of investigations and law to take its course and not to prematurely form positions.

“There are obviously disgruntled groups out there who are feeling the full impact of the Interim Government’s “Clean Up Campaign”.

“Such people have the potential to go to extremes in undermining the work which the Interim Government has been mandated to undertake by His Excellency, the President”.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Khan, suffered injuries so severe he was having trouble speaking but Teleni has denied this.

He said police were still trying to determine whether Khan’s bodyguards had on them arms and explosives.

Khan hired members of the now defunct special forces group, the Counter Revolutionary Warfare unit. Members of that unit took part in the 2000 George Speight coup and in a November 2000 mutiny in which they tried to kill Bainimarama.

He said they had 16 people in custody and more arrests would take place this afternoon.

“At this point in time, I wish to assure the citizens of this nation that police is doing its best to protect the interest, the safety and the security of each individual citizens.”

So far Khan has not been able to see his lawyer but Tevita Fa told Fairfax Media he would be seeing his client later today.

He said he had an appointment at the hospital and was determined to make the meeting.

“I’ll force myself in to see Khan … then they try and stop me,” he said.

Click to hear audio from Ballu Khan’s lawyer Tevita Fa

Tags: authorities, Community, determine whether, embers, Government, internal, Lawyer, lt