Journalist and sports marketing expert Charlie Charters has filed a High Court motion after seven electronic devices seized during an investigation were returned to his lawyer and then immediately re-seized by Fiji Police under a fresh court order.
In a statement, Charters said the development occurred on Friday after his lawyer, Seforan Fatiaki, went to the Criminal Investigations Department following a Magistrates Court order for the devices to be returned.
“You’ve always got to be braced for Fiji’s capacity to surprise. But even we were shocked by what happened to my lawyer Mr Seforan Fatiaki when he presented himself to CID on Friday,” Charters said.
According to Charters, Magistrate Shageeth Somaratne had earlier that day ordered Police to return the seven devices to Fatiaki.
Charters said Police produced the devices to his lawyer that afternoon but simultaneously served him with a fresh seizure order.
“So, on Friday afternoon Police produced the seven devices to show to Mr Fatiaki as instructed, and in the same instant Mr Fatiaki was then served with a fresh seizure order by Police who still have the devices,” he said.
The devices were originally seized following Charters’ detention and arrest in February as part of an investigation by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Charges subsequently brought against Charters were permanently stayed by the High Court on July 24.
Charters said his lawyer had initially written to FICAC on March 16 seeking the return of the devices.
He questioned the latest seizure, arguing that the High Court ruling had addressed important constitutional protections.
“The Police do not appear to have understood Justice Bulamainaivalu’s ruling,” Charters said.
“The charges against me were stayed by the High Court for a number of reasons including that, in the absence of any law limiting my rights, we all enjoy the right of freedom of speech, expression, thought, opinion and publication under section 17 of the Constitution.”
Charters also referred to protections concerning journalistic sources, saying the High Court had recognised the right not to divulge sources of journalistic information when exercising those constitutional rights.
He said the latest development raised broader concerns despite what he described as progress by the Government in restoring media freedom.
“Anyone who follows my writing on Facebook will know that I am always at great pains to give credit to this Government for helping to restore something like media freedom,” he said.
“But this raises a huge number of frankly uncomfortable questions and casts a long shadow on the Government’s record.”
Charters also alleged there were significant errors in documentation relating to the search warrant. He said those matters would form part of submissions in the new High Court proceedings.
The allegations and characterisations in Charters’ statement are his own. Police and FICAC have not been quoted in the statement responding to the claims surrounding the latest seizure.
