(PINA/IFEX) – (PINA/IFEX) – On 2 October 2000, a High Court judge in Suva ruled that a rebel gunman charged with shooting an Associated Press (AP) TV journalist must stand trial. Justice Peter Surman ruled that an immunity decree under which the rebel, Isoa Karawa, had earlier been freed by the Suva Magistrates Court did […]
(PINA/IFEX) – (PINA/IFEX) – On 2 October 2000, a High Court judge in Suva ruled that a rebel gunman charged with shooting an Associated Press (AP) TV journalist must stand trial. Justice Peter Surman ruled that an immunity decree under which the rebel, Isoa Karawa, had earlier been freed by the Suva Magistrates Court did not apply. State prosecutors had appealed against the magistrates’ court decision.
Karawa was charged with shooting and wounding Jerry Harmer, a Briton working for AP Television. Harmer was filming a clash between rebels and soldiers outside Fiji’s parliamentary complex on 27 May when he was shot. Indigenous Fijian rebels were holding Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, and members of his government hostage after launching a coup on 19 May. Karawa will now stand trial on charges of attempted murder and carrying firearms over the incident in which Harmer and two soldiers were wounded.
Justice Surman ruled that the conditions of the immunity decree – which was part of an agreement under which the hostages were finally released – had been breached.
