18 Jun 2009

Takiveikata back in Fiji court over plot to kill Bainimarama

3:19 pm on 18 June 2009

A Fiji high chief, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, has been back in the High Court in Suva over charges related to two separate attempts to kill Fiji's military leader.

Fijilive reports that the chief and seven others are alleged to have conspired to assassinate Commodore Frank Bainimarama and several of his interim ministers in November 2007.

Justice Daniel Goundar has moved the case to August the 3rd to rule on the submissions presented by the state prosecutor Navinesh Nand regarding the witnesses in the impending trial.

In the second matter, regarding his retrial for the mutiny conviction that was quashed by Justice Anthony Gates, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata's lawyer, Akuila Naco, made submissions that the charges should be dropped.

Ratu Inoke was jailed in June 2007 for mutiny and later released after the Fiji Court of Appeal set aside his convictions and ordered a re-trial.

Ratu Inoke Takiveikata was linked to former members of the military who mutinied in November 2000 in a bid to remove the commander.