12 Dec 2006

Sitiveni Rabuka's lawyer unhappy

8:54 am on 12 December 2006

The lawyer for Sitiveni Rabuka is unhappy about some aspects of the inciting mutiny charges brought against his client in Fiji's High Court.

Yesterday afternoon, Justice Gerard Winter found Mr Rabuka not guilty on two counts of inciting mutiny relating to July and November 2000

But after the verdict was delivered, the defence lawyer, Peter Maiden, said he had several issues with the case.

"We are critical of the Prosecution in the delay in bringing these charges, we only being charged in May of 2006. The first trial stopped when the assessors were discharged when it was discovered that there were relevant military files involving the events specifically of the 2nd of November, those documents previously had been secret."

Mr Maiden is calling for the documents to be released so that everyone in Fiji knows what happened during the mutiny in 2000, which led to the deaths of eight soldiers.