Acting Attorney-General Siromi Turaga has publicly accused The Fiji Times of misreporting him after he raised the topic of the death penalty during a recorded interview with the newspaper on Wednesday.
In the interview, Mr Turaga said “some people are advocating death penalty.”
“I just came back from Singapore, and I asked this question, how do you put death penalty when you have a constitution because the right to life is the very heart of a democracy. They do a national survey and is like a general consensus is death penalty,” he said.
Mr Turaga further added “that’s something Government will look at also and encouraging community, church leaders, NGOs — if they want to, they have to raise it because at the end of the day it’s a balancing society.”
However, in a statement issued today, Mr Turaga claimed his comments were taken out of context and insisted that the Coalition Government has no policy or intention to reintroduce the death penalty.
He maintained that the appropriate terminology is “maximum sentence,” not “death penalty.”
The Fiji Times stands by its report, saying the interview was recorded and Mr Turaga’s remarks were quoted accurately.
