Charlie Charters spoke to media outside court this afternoon, alleging that recent actions against him amounted to an attempt to silence whistleblowers from within the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mr Charters said he believed enforcement resources had been misdirected and questioned whether the situation had made Fiji safer from corruption.
“The person they’ve chosen to jump all over is me,” he said.
“That doesn’t make Fiji a better or safer place. It doesn’t make our country more free or more secure from the threat of corruption, which is undoing so much of the country’s progress and where we want to go from here.”
He described corruption as a “real, live issue” and claimed it was not being handled responsibly.
“These are real issues which I don’t think are being handled responsibly or sensitively by the leadership team within FICAC,” Mr Charters said, adding that he would be prepared to discuss his concerns in more detail at a later stage.
Mr Charters also questioned the deployment of investigative resources.
“All the FICAC resources were deployed to detain, arrest and charge me,” he said.
“I would suggest the problem of corruption in Fiji is just as big, just as significant—perhaps even more so—because an attempt has been made to silence whistleblowers.”
