Citizen journalist Charlie Charters will have his application to vary his bail conditions next week, to allow him to travel to Australia for employment purposes.
Charters appeared before Magistrate Shageeth Somaratne at 2.30pm at the Suva Magistrate’s Court on the first call of the application. FICAC is opposing the application and has sought time to file its objections.
Charters has been charged with two counts of aiding and abetting the unlawful disclosure of FICAC information. The charges are brought under section 45 of the Crimes Act and section 13(1)(g) of the FICAC Act.
FICAC alleges that late last year Charters intentionally aided and abetted a person who was, at the material time, an officer of FICAC to commit an offence by publishing official information relating to its functions on his Facebook page without permission of the FICAC Commissioner.
Magistrate Somaratne directed the prosecution to file and serve its objections, along with second-phase disclosures, by Monday next week. The bail variation application will be heard the following day, with a ruling scheduled for Wednesday, March 4.
