Nobody who has criticised Government has come out of prison in a body bag. Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said this outside Parliament on Tuesday as he dismissed claims by lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh, on his brother Sashi Singh’s Talking Point program, which was live streamed on Facebook last Sunday.
Mr Ravindra-Singh claimed he left Fiji to escape political persecution and death.
He claimed he had been threatened for the past 10 years and also said he lost seven guard dogs, four in 2017 and three within the course of a week at the beginning of last month.
The A-G said making baseless accusations was what landed Mr Ravindra-Singh in court in the first place and that he appeared to be turning the issue into a political one to claim asylum.
“All these years he’s been living in Fiji nobody has beaten him up or put him in a body bag,” he said. “It is completely baseless to say this and I think it is obtuse to ask these kinds of questions.”
Mr Ravindra-Singh claimed he received a phone call telling him, “Dogs are gone and you will follow and it’s only a matter of time, you’ll be going to jail and you’ll never return”.
“I was informed about being jailed by the regime and never leaving alive was three years ago, the description was I would leave in a body bag,” Mr Ravindra-Singh said on the show.
The A-G said Mr Ravindra-Singh’s allegations were “baseless” and basing questions off of them was “obtuse”.
“Tomorrow, anybody can make any sort of allegation and then based on those allegations, as false as it may be, you will form questions from that as opposed to also finding for yourself what the truth is?” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum asked.
“Has anybody in Fiji been put in a body bag because they’ve been to prison, they did not like Government, do you know that?
“Nobody has been put in a body bag and come out of prison.
How many prisoners have died in prison lately, do you know?
“You should, do your statistics, none. It’s a false assumption from which you are basing your questions.”
The A-G claimed Mr Ravindra-Singh was an officer of the court but had left Fiji without informing the court before the day of his ruling.
“The day of the ruling he does not turn up to court. A few days before, he left. He did not advise the court.”
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said, “the honourable thing to do” would have been to advise the court of his need to travel.
“The courts understand that, we all understand that, when there’s a death in the family or medical emergency. He did not do that.
“He’s now gone off to Australia making all these baseless accusations.”
