A Fiji court has refused Mahendra Chaudhry's application for the stay pending appeal of his conviction and sentence over exchange control breaches.
The Labour Party leader has been ordered to pay 1.1 million US dollars by the end of next month, or face a 15 month prison term but his lawyers had asked for a stay until the outcome of an appeal.
Mr Chaudhry's lawyer, Anand Singh, says the High Court Judge, Justice Paul Madigan, decided exceptional circumstances had not been established that would persuade him to grant the stay.
"We are considering appealing this particular ruling as we have done the substantive case to the Fiji Court of Appeal, so we may be knocking on the doors very shortly. I have got instructions to do that so it may be a matter of days before we file the documents in the Fiji Court of Appeal."
The lawyer for Mahendra Chaudry, Anand Singh.
