THE High Court in Suva has permanently stayed criminal proceedings against Charlie Charters, ruling that the prosecution brought by FICAC was an abuse of process.
Charters, a former journalist, had been charged with two counts of aiding and abetting an unnamed FICAC officer in the unauthorised publication of official information on his Facebook page.
In a ruling delivered yesterday, Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu found that FICAC breached Charters’ rights under Section 13 of the 2013 Constitution by failing to properly caution him after detaining him at Nadi Airport in February and denying him the opportunity to consult a lawyer before questioning him about his journalistic sources.
The court also found that FICAC violated Charters’ rights under Section 17(4) of the Constitution, including his freedom of speech, expression and publication, and his right not to disclose confidential journalistic sources.
Justice Bulamainaivalu ruled the charges were “doomed to fail”, finding that FICAC had failed to identify the principal offender, allegedly aided and abetted by Charters.
He further found that FICAC had not properly applied the test for prosecution and instead hastily laid charges while breaching Charters’ constitutional rights, undermining the fairness of any trial.
While rejecting the defence’s challenge to the validity of Lavi Rokoika’s appointment as acting FICAC Commissioner, under the de facto officer doctrine, Justice Bulamainaivalu held that the cumulative constitutional breaches amounted to an abuse of process and permanently halted the trial, which had been scheduled for September.
The parties have 30 days to appeal.
