Jope Seniloli - Appointment and Subsequent Trial

Appointment and Subsequent Trial

Seniloli was appointed Vice-President in 2000 as an apparent gesture of appeasement towards the supporters of the 2000 coup which deposed the lawfully elected government of President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The August 6, 2004 verdict found Seniloli guilty of unlawfully proclaiming himself President during the coup, and of illegally swearing in cabinet ministers, including George Speight, the chief instigator of the coup, as Prime Minister. Seniloli's lawyer, Mehboob Raza, maintained that he had done so only "under duress," at gunpoint, a defence rejected by High Court Justice Nazhat Shameem, who agreed with the state prosecutor that Seniloli had known of the coup plot in advance and had deliberately aided and abetted it. Shameem said that she had originally intended to sentence Seniloli to six years' imprisonment, but had opted for a four-year sentence instead, taking account of his many years of service to Fiji, including thirty-three years as a schoolteacher.

Along with Seniloli, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure, and three other defendants, were sentenced to terms of between one and six years for the same offence.

In a controversial move, Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale announced on 29 November 2004 that he had decided to release Seniloli from prison on medical grounds, a decision which angered the Labour Party. "The FLP is outraged by the jailed VP’s early release from prison," declared Senator Jokapeci Koroi, the national president of the Labour Party. "This is nothing but a conspiracy by the Government to save those who are in positions of power." Koroi called the release of Seniloli, who had served less than four months of his four year term, an "act of defiance to subvert the course of justice and the rule of law."