Fiji 2006
On 25 October 2006, having fallen out with the Qarase government, Foster was arrested by Fiji police. He suffered a head gash and was taken to hospital in Suva. Police attributed the injury to Foster hitting his head on the propeller of a boat, which he disputed, claiming that police had assaulted him. Dr. Ifeireini Waqainabete said that patients with a head injury like Fosters would normally be sent home, but he would stay at the hospital for the weekend as he had nowhere in Suva to stay. He also remarked that Fosters injuries were consistent with the police account.
Foster went on a hunger strike in hospital demanding that the police investigate the brutality of his arrest.
After being released from hospital Foster was handed over to authorities for questioning.
Police wanted to interview him about a range of matters. These included presenting a falsified police clearance certificate to immigration authorities in Fiji to obtain a work permit, obtaining loans from the Federated States of Micronesia using some lease documents from Fiji, and impersonating a rival developer to discredit a resort development at Champagne Beach in the Yasawa Islands.
Foster pleaded not guilty in Suva Magistrates Court on three charges: forgery, uttering forged documents and obtaining a work permit on forged documents. Foster was not granted bail at that stage and was sent to Suva's Korovou Prison for the night, before being released on bail the following day.
The Fiji Times reported on 5 December 2006 that Foster had switched support to Frank Bainimarama following the 2006 Fijian coup d'état after being closely involved with deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's political party before the election. Foster was also quoted as saying that "corruption in Fiji was out of control". Earlier, deposed Qarase had been quoted by the Fiji Village news service on 26 October as admitting that the then-campaign minister of the ruling Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) Party, Jale Baba, had been in contact with Foster prior to the election, but insisted that Baba had acted without the authorization or knowledge of the party. On 21 December, Fiji Village quoted the Britain Times as claiming that Foster had negotiated an agreement with the Fijian Military to expose corruption in the deposed government in return for his own freedom.
It was reported, on 13 December 2006, that Foster could return to jail in Suva after Fiji's Department of Public Prosecutions had applied for him to be remanded in custody. The DPP made the application in response to Mr Foster's bid to have his bail conditions changed so he could move from house arrest at a Suva hotel to his home on Denarau Island, off the coast of Nadi on the western side of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island.
Foster had tendered an affidavit to the Suva court by former Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer Ian Eriksson that Foster worked as an informant for the AFP during the 1990s. Two other affidavits had been submitted from former solicitors to convince the court that Foster would not be a flight risk if he were allowed to move from house arrest in a Suva hotel back to his home near Nadi, a three-hour drive away.
Foster had concerned Fijian prosecutors by checking out of the hotel where he had been ordered to stay as per his bail conditions. Foster failed to appear in court after leaving Suva's JJ's on the Park hotel, where he had been under house arrest awaiting trial on fraud charges relating to his business dealings in the country in 2006. Foster told The Australian that he had been given permission by the Suva court to return to his rented villa near Nadi in a decision by Fiji police.
On 2 January 2007, the military released what it said was a secretly obtained video of a restaurant conversation between Foster and Navitalai Naisoro, the electoral strategist of the SDL party. Naisoro told Foster that the 2006 elections were rigged, with the full knowledge and cooperation of certain elements of the police. Several Cabinet Ministers were implicated. Ousted Prime Minister Qarase angrily denied the claims. He suggested that the conversation recorded on video could have been staged.
Fiji Television reported on 10 January 2007 that Foster, who was out of prison on bail, had disappeared.
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