Suspended police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho told police he stopped investigations into the University of the South Pacific case so he could get an update for former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
Suliasi Dulaki, an investigator at the Criminal Investigations Department said this when he took the stand at the Suva Magistrate’s Court as the trial of Messrs Bainimarama and Qiliho continued before Magistrate Seini Puamau yesterday.
Mr Dulaki, who had interviewed Mr Qiliho under caution, read out extracts from the recorded interview, taken over three separate sessions.
He said Mr Qiliho told him he could not recall being told to stay away from the case by Mr Bainimarama, but that he asked for the investigation to be stopped because he wanted an update.
Mr Dulaki had asked Mr Qiliho if he maintained that he had spoken with the investigating officer, through the director Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Serupepeli Neiko.
Mr Qiliho said he did, and that he wanted to know what was really happening because he had not received a detailed brief from either the director CID or the Chief of Investigation, Intelligence, and Prosecution (CIIP). He said all major investigations were handled at the CID headquarters and if a briefing came to him it would be through the CIIP.
Mr Qiliho said in most cases he would call up and ask for an update of what was going on.
In the caution interview, Mr Dulaki had asked him whether he had any powers to call for a stop to an investigation, and Mr Qiliho replied that in the USP case he “asked for the stop” so he could get a summary to keep him updated on the case which had become one of national interest.
He said he did not normally do that but because he was not updated, he had to take that action. Mr Dulaki had asked him to confirm under whose directive he asked for the investigation’s progress and a brief.
Mr Qiliho said it was not a directive, and that Mr Bainimarama had asked him for a brief.
Mr Dulaki had asked him if it would have been proper for a case summary to be put together after the suspects were interviewed.
Mr Qiliho said he wanted it stopped at that time with all those that had been interviewed so that he could k n o w what was going on too.
He said he had been waiting for an update to come from the CIIP, and it had come to him prior to his departure for studies in England, in late July 2020.
Mr Dulaki said the director CID at the time, Mr Neiko, and the inspector investigating the case, Rashmi Dass, said Mr Qiliho’s instruction to them was to stop the investigation.
Mr Qiliho said he told them to stop the investigation and do a summary, and by that, he “expected that to be stuffed up”, and told them to come through the CIIP to get his input before the brief came to him, and not to “file away”.
He clarified during the interview that to file away in police terminology meant the case was closed.
In cross-examination, defence lawyer Devanesh Sharma pointed out that during the interview, Mr Dulaki had misled Mr Qiliho in saying that there was a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on September 17, 2022, when the meeting he was referencing took place on the same date in September 2020.
Mr Sharma said according to the interview record, in that NSC meeting, the then acting police commissioner Rusiate Tudravu made a proposal regarding the USP.
He asked why Mr Tudravu had attended the meeting, and Mr Dulaki replied he understood there were further enquiries to be conducted, as advised by the Director of Public Prosecutions, however, there was a hinderance from Mr Qiliho, and that was why Mr Tudravu took it up to the NSC.
But Mr Sharma said Mr Qiliho had left Fiji by the end of July that year. Mr Dulaki agreed that Mr Tudravu had raised concerns of national interest.
Mr Sharma got Mr Dulaki to read out a section of the record of interview where he asked Mr Qiliho about former director CID Mesake Waqa saying he filed the investigation away on the instruction of the CIIP at the time, Surend Sami, who said he received instructions from Mr Qiliho for the case to be filed away.
Mr Qiliho had said those instructions would have been given in writing, and that he never gave instructions to file the case away.
The trial will continue on Monday, with Serupepeli Neiko taking the witness stand.